Naruto the Toad Sage
by thegarbler
Summary: Jiraya is killed in a battle to defeat Pein. Naruto returns to Konoha a changed man. Now, with the title of Toad Sage in hand, it is Naruto's duty to respond to any threats to Konohagakure that may arise. His first problem? Sasuke's back. M for language.
1. He's dead, Jim

**A/N: Sooo… this is what's going to happen. I'm going to re-write my story. The early chapters are shit. Just to clarify, I am aware that a lot of stuff has changed in the Naruto-verse since this was published; this story simply ignores the events in the manga/anime. It's its own thing. Also, most chapters will probably be shorter from now on; it's just my style. Enjoy, please review ;)**

* * *

The young man clutched at the body of the old man and wept. He had seen death before, but this time was different. This time, Jiraya was dead. Naruto hugged the body to his chest, smelled his hair, smelled his blood and compartmentalized the sensation into his head, lest he forget it.

Around him, the Rookie Nine stood or lay slumped. They each handled death in their own way. Shikamaru was on his back staring at the sky. Sakura was crying. But no one was without pain.

Pain. _Pein._

The little shit.

Akatsuki was gone; the price paid in Jiraya's blood. The rain that poured over the shinobis' heads was incessant, but it did little to wash away the stains of crimson on everyone's clothes. They stood in a hellish scrap yard, where towers of jagged copper and iron loomed over them.

Here and there were corpses.

Most of them were Jiraya's work of course, but Naruto had been the one to impale the Pein on the broken railing; Lee the one who had cracked the Pein by the furnace's head open.

Jiraya was invincible in Naruto's eyes. His fighting had been the fiercest. He had taken out three Pein's by himself, including the original one before finally being slain himself. Naruto was proud of him. Akatsuki was no more.

The mission was done now. It was time to go home. Naruto heaved the great Toad Sage's body onto his eighteen-year-old frame and took the first trembling step back to Konohagakure; home.

The Rookie Nine fell in step behind him.

Lee offered to help carry Jiraya part of the way, but Naruto slapped his hands away. This was his burden to carry. The Nine marched back to Konoha in silence. The villagers of the Rain didn't bother them. Most of them were enemy ninjas and therefore, dead.

* * *

By the fifth night they could finally see the lights of Konoha on the skyline. The small band had been forced to travel at half-speed, mainly out of respect for the old man's body. A small part of their minds didn't want to return home though. Not without Jiraya.

Naruto was the first to reach the gate when they finally arrived at the village. He stepped past the enormous Doors, set Jiraya onto the ground, and then silently sat on the floor. Someone summoned Tsunade, and before long he found himself wrapped in his adoptive mother's arms, struggling to stop from weeping again.

"What happened?" she managed to say

"Tsunade-sama… I- I'm sorry. I couldn't save him."

To Tsunade, it was the –sama suffix that hurt the most. She said nothing. There was nothing that she _could_ say. Instead, she pulled the boy in her arms tightly to her chest until the sobbing stopped and he was ready to enter the village.

Except he only managed about three steps into the village proper. He was down on the floor by the fourth.

* * *

_Where the fuck?_ I'm not in my apartment. I've never laid eyes on this place before. My hand darts for a kunai. There's none there though.

And my eyes are focusing now. Hospital. I'm in a hospital.

Dashes of pink, the smell of strawberries, and now I'm nearly being crushed back into unconsciousness by Sakura.

"_Can'tbreathe!"_

She releases me instantly.

"I'm so sorry!" she gasps. "You've been out for almost two days. I was worried."

I sit up in bed and make sense of what happened. Bad idea. I remember about Jiraya.

Sakura must have noticed, because she's quiet and this new hug is gentler.

"I'm sorry," is all she says, but it's enough.

"What was wrong with me?" I ask, after a while. If only to break the silence.

"Exhaustion. Physical and mental. I tried to keep you fed with chakra on the way home but it was enough," she answers.

We're interrupted by a knock on the door followed by Tsunade entering the room.

"Hey. Good to see you're up," she says. "I was afraid you'd be out until at least Friday, but it looks like the Kyuubi restored most of your Chakra."

"I was in the negative?"

"In the _red._"

Shit. Good old foxy. If not for him I'd probably be in a coma.

Tsunade signs some papers to release me from the hospital. I say goodbye to her without talking about Jiraya. I know I'll be debriefed later. I take Sakura's hand and we leave the building. I'm glad to be out in the fresh air without the smell of disinfectant everywhere.

Well. Not quite glad. But I'm not about to cry again.

We start to walk home, but I decide I want to see the Nine, so we stop by Fukku's. Everyone's mostly drunk, but not rowdy. We leave after about an hour. My friends aren't really in the mood to see me.

At home we quietly strip down and lay naked together in bed. The blinds in the room are shut, and a little light manages to peep through and color the dark room gray. After a while the quiet lulls me to sleep.

Tomorrow is going to be one fucked up day.

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**A/N: Right, the POV switch will probably stick from now on as well. I like writing in FP for Naruto. Hope you enjoyed that. I'll continue re-writing the chapters before actually continuing with the story. Hope you enjoyed it; please review ;)**


	2. Memories of a Mission Part I

A/N: Ok, here's chapter 2, and while the fight scene may be a little lacking, it's only to set up the fact that Jiraya gets pissed. So, I hope you enjoy this, and reviewers... Do your thang!

(I don't own Naruto, but I will one day, MUAHAHAHA!!

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"Start talking"

Naruto took a deep breath, looked over to Sakura for reassurance, and started his tale. While he was talking, his friends would sometimes add in things that he had forgotten or neglected. But on the whole, no one spoke a word as Naruto told his tale.

"We had arrived in the clearing at about midnight, in dead pursuit of Pein..."

* * *

_Jiraya turned around, shouting towards the ninja group he was in command of. The hokage and pulled out all the stops for _this_ mission, and he had to make sure that all the soldiers under his command was ready for the biggest fight of their lives._

"_Alright guys, the target shinobi is up ahead. He is _S_-Rank criminal. Be on your guard for Kami's sake. I don't want any soldier killed or left behind. He is extremely dangerous, and while he may lack some skills in Taijutsu, he will most certainly decimate you with ninjutsu"_

_With that said, he turned around again, and continued bounding through the trees. Behind him, Naruto smiled nervously, trying to calm down. He had been training for years for this specific fight. He _wouldn't _lose. Sakura turned over to look at him._

"_Aren't you at least a _little _worried?" she asked, the anxiousness visible on her troubled face._

_Naruto grinned at her, trying to reassure her, in spite of his own personal feelings and worries._

"_Not at all Sakura-chan! I'm sure we'll win, we've been training for this the past 2 years!" _

_Suddenly, he felt a tug at his heart. Here in front of him was his lover, the girl who he even planned to marry one day. But on this mission, it was very possible that either Naruto or Sakura died. And he might not ever get another chance. On the sput of a moment he closed the gap between them, and gave her a tender kiss, knowing full well that it was possible that he'd never see her again. She tasted like sweet cherries, and he tried the make the moment last. Sakura deepened the kiss as well, knowing that it could be their last time together too. After a full ten seconds they broke apart._

"_I love you, Sakura-chan"_

* * *

_They finally caught up to him at midnight. Pein was standing in a large-ish clearing, a smirk spread across his already smug face._

"_Ah, the Konoha shinobi have finally come to play, huh? I was wondering when you would get here. I actually had time to wait for you slowpokes," he gestured at the small stumps of wood next to him, evidence of his short amount of training done before the Shinobi arrived._

"How did he do that?!" _Neji exclaimed, clearly surprised. The whole time, he had been watching Pein barely ahead of them, with his Byakugan. The fact that he was fooled by some kind of _bunshin_ only insulted his skill._

"_Oh, it was some regular old _Kage Bunshin, _albeit with some extra chakra," he shrugged before continuing "I didn't want to let you think it was hopeless chasing me, when you didn't see me for five days. His next comment was so casual, so "off the shoulder" that even Naruto shuddered at the coldness in such simple words. But those six words said it all._

"_But now, I can kill you"_

_Jiraya's face was impassive at the threat decidedly directed at him. He had know of Pein's want to kill him for a long time now, and it didn't faze him a bit. He retaliated with a threat of his own, not about to be put down by some _Akatsuki _member._

"_Just try. I will personally break every bone in your body. Starting with..." as he said this, there was a white flash, and he appeared next to Pein. Bracing himself, he cocked a fist, and smashed in painfully against Pein's face. There was a sickening _CRUNCH _when his fist connected. He smiled. Everyone else, including Lee was impressed by such speed, so much speed that he was simply a white flash while he moved._

"_Your nose"_

_Pein was awestruck to say the least. The injury wasn't grave, or even painful. It was more a matter of pride than anything else, and in that department Pein had now just received a bitter injury. Jiraya cracked his knuckles._

"_Who's killing who?" he taunted, then launched a jutsu. He flashed through some hand signs and yelled out its name_

_Earth Style: Earth Pillar jutsu!"_

_As he spoke a massive pillar of stone erupted from the ground and threatened to impale Pein if didn't move. Even so, even as he moved, he could feel the stone pillar impaling his left leg. There went his mobility._

_He landed hard, on his good leg, and turned to examine the wound. The leg was gone, and all was left a stump of blood and flesh. Concentrating a bit of Chakra into his leg, he quickly re-grew the leg he had lost. The smirk found its way back to his face._

"_Nice try. But honestly, you're going to have to try a lot harder then that!"_

_In a blink of the eye he dashed forward towards the closest Shinobi, Kiba, and began to pound him with hand to hand combat. He threw a left hook, to which Kiba slipped under, trailing his foot, trying to trip over Pein. Pein jumped over the leg, going for an overhead crescent kick aimed at breaking Kiba's trailing leg, but Shino stepped in with Intercepter swarm that blocked the kick. Pein looked surprised at the small black cloud that held his leg in place. Then he heard the scream._

"RASENGAN!"

_Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a blue glow, and tried to turn to catch the rasengan enhanced punched, but only met resistance, as his leg was held still by the bugs. But by then it was too late. So easily defeated, he tried to supress a scream as the blue orb churned it organs, and melted everything inside of him, blowing out in a final explosion, his blood and guts flying everywhere. The whole process took only a humiliating 10 seconds, easily beating any records for defeating S-rank criminals. It only came to show the Leaf Nins skills._

"_AUUUUGHH!!" he screamed, unable to hold back the pain. That's when he began to fall, and hit the ground with a muted thud._

_But he was not out of the fight yet. He still had his secret weapon. He flashed through more hand seals, and then shouted out the technique's name. Pein regretted that he had to use this almost straight into the battle, but he could tell that he was outclassed by some of the ninja in the taskforce, and that the Intercepter/Rasengan combo was only a small taste of the Konoha ninjas' strength._

"_Shadow arts: Death Renewal!" and as Pein shouted, his body slowly began to change in front of the awed Konoha ninjas. The whole in the back closed up, and all the organs where restored. He stood up, and his body began to change even more drastically. First him arm increased in muscle mass drastically, the ripples of muscles the size of Naruto's head. The arm grew so big, that it became red, the blood in the arm visible over the taut skin. Then, the other arm grew to the same incredible proportions. his head began to grow too and horns began to sprout out of the top of his head, and each grew to the length of a meter. His teeth became long a pointy, obviously designed to bite and tear through flesh. Pein's nails lengthened too, becoming claws. But by far, his eyes were the most disturbing thing of all. They were red, with no pupils visible, and were large like saucers. It was simply un human, almost demonic. He stood at a immense 4 meters, almost the peak of a Ninja's non-chakra enhanced jump. _

All the nin were severely rattled, and their feelings were pretty much summed up when Ino said

"Holy CRAP!"

"_I_ _will _KILL _you all!!" Pein declared, his voice suddenly having a double-tone quality to it. He dashed forward and with a single claw almost mutilated Naruto's arm, leaving a deep gash to the bone up Naruto's left arm._

_Naruto shrieked wordlessy, the essence of his pain in the sound of his voice._


	3. Memories of a Mission Part II

_Naruto's pain-induced shriek could be heard from miles away as Pein's hand-claw brutally slashed up his arm, starting at the wrist, ending at the shoulder and exposing the bare bone. To Naruto it was like being put through a paper shredder except with blades that never stopped cutting. Falling to his knees, he clutched his arm, still screaming in pain. _

"Naruto-kun!!" _Sakura exclaimed, her worst fears suddenly coming true. She flashed through all the worst-case scenarios that could happen now, and they all ended in one thing: Naruto's death. The rookie nine, and Team Guy were shocked at the brutality of the attack. Even the Hyugas' Byakugan could see the huge amount of chakra used in the claw swipe, and that only meant that either Naruto's chakra lines had been cut, or could be cut. Ino was busy expelling her ninja rations to one side, and Kiba with his super-sensitive smelling looked green around the gills. _

_But no one had noticed Jiraiya. The white haired sannin took a lot to get pissed, and one of his worst enemies attacking his favorite student definitely fell under the "Make me get pissed" category. As he stared onto the impassive face of Pein, and Naruto on the floor clutching his arm, in his own pool of blood, he felt his ire grow._

_It was like a kettle slowly getting hotter and hotter. At first, he simply was angry and worried, but it slowly moved into rage and finally into feelings of pure hatred, when Pein began to kick an already incapacitated Naruto. Jiraiya's face began to twist and contort to reveal his anger, and with a single defiant challenged, he launched himself at Pein._

"_Attack me, that's fine. Attack anyone else, and I'll injure you! _Attack Naruto, and I'll KILL you!!"

_he screamed as he bounded towards the transformed Pein. Pein heard the mad running, but only had time to raise his arm in a half attempt at blocking the enraged Jiraiya. But it was too little and too late. Jiraiya was upon him, becoming a Shinigami when he revealed his anger. He jumped to an impressive height, then brought his own heel over Pein's head, breaking a horn with a resounding CRACK! and leaving a black spot on the Akatsuki leader's head. He followed up by a right hook to the face, which Pein slipped under, despite his impressive height. Instead of slipping harmlessly though, Pein met a fully charged Rasengan to the face, which launched him into nearby trees, breaking at least half a dozen of them._

"_Take _that_! You little Akatsuki bastard!" Jiraiya taunted, clearly satisfied that his attack had been successful. But then he lept out of the way of a gaping chasm in the floor that opened after the clear shout of_

"_Shadow Arts: Demon Chasm jutsu!" by Pein. Once in the air, however, Jiraiya had no way of blocking Pein's mad slash towards his lower rib, which ripped skin, and revealed bone._

_Meanwhile, the rest of the leaf shinobi pulled Naruto to the relative safety of the sidelines, while Neji and Lee stepped in to help Jiraiya with Pein._

"_Gentle Fist!"_

"_Goken Style!" _

_Both Neji and Lee exclaimed simultaneously as they launched at the massive beast which was Pein, each pounding the monster Nin with their respective styles. But for every high kick Lee launched, Pein easily blocked with a claw of his own, and for every Chakra numbing strike Neji attempted, Pein was already out of the way. They continued like this for a while, neither party landing any decisive blows, while Jiraiya caught his breath. At last though, he recovered enough from the few high-powered jutus and rib wound he received. Lee and Neji stepped back again, while TenTen launched a few kunai knives to cover them while the scrambled back to the sidelines. Sakura was busy nursing Naruto's wound, but looked up towards the carnage and Team Gai members._

* * *

"_How's he holding out?" She questions, eager to know if the battle was going their way. Sakura was too busy taking care of Naruto to even look at the battle for even a little while._

"_Well, Jiraiya just received a slightly serious rib wound, but it's not completely impairing him to fight" Neji said, analytical as always._

"_YOSH! Jiraiya-sensei's flames of youth will _NEVER_ die down! It would be most un-youthful for him to lose to such a non-youth like Pein" Lee exclaimed, stressing the 'youths' in his sentence._

"_I hope he can win," Sakura said, looking down at Naruto before continuing, "Because Naruto didn't get a chance to even fight._

_But she was also worried about Naruto. Normally Naruto would already be healing from a wound, but the arm wound wasn't getting any better on it's own._

"_Please don't fail, Jiraiya-sensei" She muttered._

* * *

_Jiraiya ducked under another roundhouse kick aimed at his head that most definitely would have decapitated him. Pein didn't have claws on just his hands, his feet were dangerously clawed as well._

I won't be able to keep this up for long_ Jiraiya thought to himself. _Sooner or later I'm going to be too tired to keep on going, and that's going to be the end of me. _But rage kept on going, and a desire to protect the younger rookies who undoubtedly would not last long fighting Pein._

Time to end this_ Jiraiya concluded. After dodging another madly powerful punch, and blocking another shin-strike from Pein, Jiraiya jumped back and disengaged, giving him a precious few moments to flash through some hand seals, before exclaiming:_

"**Jiraiya**_ style: _**Sage Mode!**" _and like Pein before him, Jiraiya began to change as well. He gained a few inches in height, and his hair grew to the point that it brushed against his waist. His body increased in muscle mass, and legs became thicker. Jiraiya's eyes suddenly lost their pupils and became a sea of white. There was even a blue glow around him, indicating a mass consumption of Chakra._

"_Pein, your time ends _NOW_" he said, before drawing a kunai from a leg holster. Pein watched the whole transformation, but was not ready for what was next. As Jiraiya dashed forwawrd, he suddenly disapeared, then reappeared behind Pein, the Kunai already coming down, and entering the beast's shoulder. Pein howled in pain, and tried to backhand Jiraiya, only for him to slide down under the arm, while the others watched in fascination. It was like his reactions, speed and strength increased by a ten-fold. As Jiraiya slid underneath Pein, he cut at both Pein's legs, earning another yelp of pain from the enemy. As Jiraiya began to come up from his slide, Pein began and overhead punch aimed at Jiraiya's chest, but the Sannin simply caught the fist with a loud fleshy _THWACK! _Trying to take advantage of the immobilized ninja, Pein grinned and taunted, "It's over, Toad" then tried to toss the ninja over the shoulder. He was almost too fast for Jiraiya, but not fast enough, and the Sannin easily counter by letting go of Pein. He then smashed his fist so hard against Pein's face, he sent the Akatsuki member flying a good twenty yards. But the Akatsuki nin never made it towards the floor, because Jiraiya was already there, furiously pounding Pein into a pulp from the air. Poor Pein had already lost the fight from the moment Jiraiya went 'Sage mode'. He ended the airborne beat down with another over head crescent kick that connected solidly into the Pein's chest, sending him into a the unforgiving floor. When the dust settled, there was Jiraiya with a kunai pointed at Pein's heart, who was on the floor, panting from the massive beating he had just received. Just to add insult to injury, Jiraiya quitely stressed the fact that Pein had been beating without Ninjutsus, and then added a few slugs to Pein's face._

"_That the best you got Pein?" He asked sarcastically._

"_Cause I got better" _

_He then shoved the Kunai with all his strength into the mutated Pein's heart, with a large squelch, followed by a new shriek of pain from Pein, even louder than Naruto's own. _

"_Damn Sannin! If I die, I shall take you down with me!" Pein screamed, before stabbing Jiraiya's own heart with one of his claws, which elicited a unanimous gasp from the other Konoha nins, and intense hiss of pain from Jiraiya._

"_Stupid fool! Can't you see you've lost? Even if I die, it's over, we won. You are the last Akatsuki, and you _**failed**!"_ he exclaimed, satisfied that in his last moments Pein realized his extreme failure. But then, Pein drew in one raggedy breath, then stopped breathing. He was dead. _

_But he did not die alone._

_Almost immediately afterwards, Jiraiya swayed a bit on his knees before collapsing right next to Pein. The konoha nins rushed over, leaving an unconscious Naruto behind, since he had stabilized. Sakura was the first one to reach the Sannin._

"_Sakura! Sakura!" he wheezed, beckoning the pink Kunoichi to come beside him. _

"_Yes, Jiraiya-sensei?" she asked, knowing full well from the blood around the Sannin's mouth and chest area that he did not have long in this world._

"_Tell him," he paused as coughs racked through his body "That... I have nothing left to teach him. He is the New Sannin now" _

_Then, he was gone._


	4. Thoughts and Honorings

(Disclaimer): Yada yada yada, Don't own Naruto, Bla Bla Bla...

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Tsunade's eyes were shedding tears by the time Naruto finished describing the old man's last moments

Tsunade's eyes were shedding tears by the time Naruto finished describing the old man's last moments. She knew that Jiraiya had always been brave and powerful, he was a Sannin after all, but to have gone so far to kill Pein after just seeing him injure his apprentice? Brutal injury or not, it still took a lot of courage to go after Pein of all people, and to go out heroically too. In between quiet hiccups to herself, she managed to speak, yet it was such an uttering that Naruto had to crane his neck forward to listen to his Hokage's words.

"He really… He really did that?"

Unable to hold back his sorrow, Naruto too soon found himself drowned in tears. It was as if when Jiraiya died, he took all happiness with him.

"Yeah, he-" Naruto was cut off as he uncharacteristically hiccupped as well "He did all that" He looked down at his hands, and clenched them in sad anger. Then, he looked back up.

"But the worst part of it all, was that he did it for me. It was _my _fault. If I hadn't gotten myself injured in the first few _seconds_ of the fight, maybe he'd still be here," he looked back up again into Tsunade's eyes. The pain was clear, it was visible in his eyes. All the hurt and loss he had already experienced before was only multiplied several times by Jiraiya's death. The man, while a pervert, had been good at heart, and had always been a father to Naruto.

All the while, Tsunade heard this, her already broken heart shattered some more.

"Oh no, Naruto! Don't ever think that! What he did was nothing short of heroic, and it was his own choice. I'm sure he even knew he might've died. But at least he died protecting one of his precious people, like I know he wanted to go", she then did what no one in the room ever thought could happen. She closed the space, and also did something uncharacteristic of her:

She hugged Naruto.

* * *

Sakura and Naruto found themselves doing the same thing they had done before the de-brief, walking around Konoha, enjoying each other's company. After Naruto's break-down, everyone quietly extricated themselves from the Hokage's office, leaving the two blondes to console themselves, like a mothers and son who cry over the death of their father and husband.

Sakura nestled a little more into Naruto's strong arms. She loved how they felt so powerful, yet so soft and caring. His warmth brought her happiness, but when he was in pain, emotional or otherwise, Sakura could feel her own heart threatening to rip itself out. They walked down the streets in darkness, the few villagers smiling small expressions of support. Long ago had they left their hate for the 'demon container' and they all felt the pain of his mentor's death. They had been after all, informed about the Sannin's death shortly after Naruto's arrival back to the village.

Sakura looked up at her boyfriend, who's cerulean blue eyes, were simply looking on into the distance. She knew he was in the past, probably re-living scenes from his childhood with Jiraiya.

"Are you ok?" she murmured silently. To her surprise, Naruto looked down and smiled sadly.

"A little shaken, but I think that the main shock of his death has worn off" He looked down at his sandals, and sighed.

"I miss the old goat a lot though. If anything, I feel anger at myself for not being able to do anything," When Sakura stayed silent, he continued.

"You know, I know that it's not my fault, but it's just that I feel so… _responsible _for his death. I mean, what would have happened if I had defended myself from Pein. Would he still be alive? Would Jiraiya-sensei have lived?"

Sakura noticed the pained look on his handsome face. She had always thought him good-looking, and even when sad, he radiated a bit of happiness.

Sakura kept silent though, and comforted him the only way she could, with her companionship and love. Because love him she did. Naruto completed a side of her she never knew she had, until recently. All those years chasing after Sasuke were a complete waste of time, and now, with Naruto, Sakura realized that she had found ever-lasting love. Every morning when he met her to eat breakfast, or to go on a mission, or even _train _he made Sakura feel like the only girl in the universe. It was a connection shared only by them, and they both enjoyed every moment.

And that was Naruto's comfort in spite of all the sorrow.

The couple was now approaching Sakura's house, and yet neither had spoken a word. But Naruto broke the silence by saying,

"They want to make me Sannin" He looked down at his pink-haired girlfriend.

"What do you think?" he asked, truthfully wanting and needing her opinion.

Sakura pondered the question for a while in her head. She knew that Naruto was the _correct_ choice, she _knew _it. But the problem was that Naruto might still be hurt by Jiraiya's death, and taking his position as Sannin of the Toads for Konoha might seem like disrespect to the memory of Jiraiya. But at the same time, it Naruto would be living on Jiraiya's dream _and _getting ready to take on responsibilities that would come up as Rokudaime Hokage. Being the Toad Sannin meant not only that Naruto would have to collect intelligence for Konoha, but he would have to be a diplomat at times, and an enforcer at others. The practical aspect of the position sealed the deal for Sakura though. The only was to honor Jiraiya was to do a good job at everything Naruto did. And being the Toad Sannin was a good why to start doing that.

"Yes," she affirmed, "Yes, I think you should do that. It would be honoring Jiraiya in the best way possible," But when Sakura saw the shadow of doubt cross Naruto face she continued, "Besides, I think that the Jiraiya would be honored to have his prize student succeed him as Sannin of the Toads"

And just like for Sakura, that small statement turned Naruto mind decisive. Sakura was right. He wanted to honor Jiraiya, if only the memory at least, and being Sannin would only do just that.

He nodded his head, and then stopped when they reached the Pink blossom's house.

"Yeah Sakura-chan, I guess you're right," he looked mournfully at the small house which his girlfriend owned. "Well, I guess we're here, so I better go" he started to turn around, but was stopped by a slender hand"Sorry there Naruto, I can't let you do that"

And with a mischievous grin, she led the confuse blonde inside

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**A/N: woooo, getting a little feisty there, Sakura! Anyways, a short little chapter for you, sorry. I know I promised a big juicy chapter update, but I will get unto that after Thursday. For the mean time though, I still will update some more between now and then, but it won't be anything grand or big. Damn SAT's... So, before I leave, just wanted to say thank-you to all the reviewers (All twelve of them!) and to keep on doing your thing. Peace.**

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	5. Origins of Love

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Sheesh**

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Naruto woke up with the smell of strawberries tickling his nose, and the taste of strawberries still in his mouth. The first few rays of light were already penetrating the shut-tight shutters, so Naruto figured it was quite late. He looked over his shoulder to the sleeping figure of Sakura, openly admiring her body, and the way she looked so peaceful while she rested.

Quietly, he slipped out of bed, leaving the sleeping Sakura in the bedroom. And since it wasn't the first time he'd stayed over the night, he visited the spacious walk-in closet that Sakura owned, hoping to find spare clothes for himself. As he searched, he hummed to himself happily. He loved being with Sakura, and ever since the moment they had been together, it was like he couldn't be more than a few moments apart from her.

* * *

**Flashback**

_He walked through Konoha, his recently appointed Jounin vest shining brightly in the sun. Naruto grinned as he looked down at the new hit-ai he held in his hands. The blonde marched through out the whole village a couple of times, beaming at anybody who looked at him. His happiness was so intense, that he even earned himself some smiles from villagers as he passed them by._

_But Naruto was not marching around the village for his health, he was looking for someone special, someone who he knew would care._

_So he searched until he found that special someone._

_The pink haired beauty was humming to herself, tending to the yard._

_Naruto grinned for the fifth time that day, happy that he found the person he was looking for._

"_Sakura-chaaan!" he called out. Said kunoichi turned around at the sound of her name, to find Naruto on the side walk in front of her medimum-sized home in the middle of Konoha._

"_Hey Naruto! How's it going?" she called back, just as carefree. She saw the shiny piece of metal in between Naruto's hand, and pointed at it curiously._

"_What's that?" she asked. _

She cares! She actually cares about what I have!_ Naruto thought. And that's when his ear-to-ear grin threatened to split his face even further. _

"_Oh I don't know..." He began casually, his excitement beginning to build, "Just a little something called a-" he then put on a pondering face before continuing._

"_Well? It looks like just a stupid piece of Naruto. What's so special about it?" Sakura asked, completely oblivious to the significance of the 'stupid piece of metal'._

"_It's one of those new-fangled _Jounin _Hit-ais!" Naruto finally exclaimed,not being able to contain his excitement any longer. He began to jump up and down with glee._

"_I've been _promoted _Sakura-chan! _I'm a jounin!"

_And before he could even shout with joy, he found the air crushed out of his lungs by the pink haired cherry blossom. _

"_Congratulation! Oh my gosh! I can't believe it!" Sakura gushed. "You're going to have so many cool things... Like you'll learn more jutsus, get paid more, get authority. You'll have _respect, _Naruto! You've always wanted that!"_

_Naruto nodded vigorously. But as he stared at Sakura, his heart saddened knowing that he still didn't have the thing he wanted above all else:_

_Her Heart._

_And that's the only thing he ever wanted._

* * *

_Later that night, Naruto found himself walking nervously up Sakura's front steps. Earlier that day, they had agreed to go out to dinner together, celebrating Naruto's newly commissioned promotion. And while it was far from Naruto's first time out with Sakura (Ever since Sasuke was killed in an attempt to bring him back, they regularly went out, to comfort each other's loss) he was nervous in a weird kind of way. It was like ever since he got the promotion he had felt especially heart-sick over Sakura, and every time she smiled at some other guy, or some other guy sweet-talked to her, his brash self threatened to knock the daylights out of the guy._

_But tonight was different._

_Tonight was going to be the night in which he told Sakura his feelings. Come hell or high water, he would not walk away from her tonight with out telling her how he felt. And he had dressed the piece too. In the style of bachelor, Naruto had dressed for success. Opting to leave his hit-ai at home (Quite hesitantly, but one of his own clones convinced him that it would ruin the civilian atmosphere) he let his hair flop down over his forehead. Dressing in a dark blue blazer that went un-buttoned over a white long-sleeve shirt with vertical brown stripes, with dark fleece dressing pants. Added a few man-bracelets that doubled as nin-gauntlets (He still couldn't shake the habit of always being combat-ready) topped off the look._

_He hoped he hadn't over-dressed, because that would've made everything a tad awkward._

_Shaking his head to clear away any thoughts of pessimism, he took up courage, walked up to the door, and rung the bell._

_And not ten seconds had passed when the door opened._

_Naruto almost gasped at the sheer beauty._

_She was dressed to kill, with a form-fitting dress that accented all her curves in all the right places that ended just about the knee. The pink in the dress went well with her jade eyes. Sakura's face wore barely any makeup and the natural beauty was there. And just as Naruto were nin-gauntlets, he knew that those inch pumps probably were detachable and could become knives at a moments notice._

"_I uh... Came to... Um.. You know..." Naruto started nervously. He was mentally slapping himself for showing such emotion so early into their meeting (He was still afraid to call it a date)._

_Sakura blushed._

"_I hope I haven't overdressed, Naruto. It's just that it's such an important event, I thought I might as well..." she was caught off by Naruto's spontaneous response_

"_No, no! You look fabulous. I mean, great. Eh... right.." He finished suddenly. The mental slapping continued. _Woooow Naruto. Real smooth with the ladies _He thought to himself._

_But if he had come off on an off-note, Sakura hadn't noticed. She smiled with those cute little dimples of hers._

"_I think you look pretty good yourself" she said, cautiously._

_And that stopped the mental abuse. _She likes how I look! She really does! _Just that one simple sentence had brightened up the whole night. All of a sudden, the rest of the date (Yes, he might as well call it that, at least to himself, privately) looked like it would be extremely enjoyable._

* * *

_Even though Naruto was a Ramen maniac, he did eat other things too. He took them to a quaint little restaurant in the center of Konoha, not to far from Sakura's house (Couldn't be too far away, because as civilians, they were restricted to walking and not a nin-dash). After being seated, and the waiter took their orders, small talk reined the night. At the end of their meal, and after paying the bill (In which Naruto had to fight against a massive eye-brow raise when he saw the number of digits) they were back outside walking in the lamp-lit streets of Konoha's entertainment district. Strangely enough, however, there were few people yet Naruto still felt like there was lack of privacy in the well lit streets. _

_On a brash note, Naruto slowly and carefully took Sakura's hand, testing to see her reaction. A slight blush, but she didn't pull away. Silently and solemnly, he led her to the park, were it was dark and peaceful. As the wet grass met his pants, he channeled a little chakra in his eyes to enhance his vision in the darkness, simultaneously feeling Sakura doing the same._

_They sat on a park overlooking the dark lake in the middle of the park._

_Naruto sighed. This would be the hard part._

_As he racked his mind for a way to start off what he wanted to say, Sakura made it easier by taking the initiative._

"_Anything you wanted to say?" She probed. Naruto turned down to look at her, the moonlight cascading on her already beautiful face. The moon was reflected in her eyes, as was a questioning expression, as if she had a burning desire to know the _real _reason to know why they were in the park. Never had he meant to say so many things, yet could not say a thing at all. So as with other things in life, he acted by the seat of his pants._

"_Sakura," he began "I've had a really great night with you" he paused, thinking what to say next that could lead into a confession of his feelings._

"_In fact, it's been one of the best nights I've ever had, especially since it was with _you"

_Good. That left the nagging feeling of his enjoyment coming directly from her._

"_And honestly, this hasn't been the first time I've felt good about being with you" again, he paused, Sakura silent the whole time. It was like she was prodding him to go on._

"_You know, I remember the first time I found out that we were going to be on the same time, I almost died of happiness. But then I found out that Sasuke was with us as well, and I almost beat his face in right then and there in the classroom. I was so pissed that he would rob any chance at," he hesitated that, preferring not to spring the revelation just yet by saying "At you" and instead continued by saying "a good friendship with you."_

_He was silent another few moments._

"_But then he left, and we got closer," he cheered up when he noticed that Sakura smiled at that before continuing "And ever since then, I've always liked being with you" And that's when he began to... to... He wondered to himself were this was even going._

"_But I guess I liked being with you because I always wanted us to become more than friends"_

_He waited with baited breath as Sakura comprehended that simple phrase. It was just eighteen words, yet for Naruto they carried the meaning of a life-time. And in the span of about five seconds, Sakura shared that meaning with Naruto._

_She leaned forward. And they kissed._

**End Flashback.**

* * *

Naruto smiled at the thought. It warmed his heart every time he remembered how he and Sakura had gotten together. But nothing made his face smile more than the memory of how he had proposed to Sakura. and she said _Yes._

* * *

**Flashback**

_Just as it had been 2 years ago when Naruto had received his promotion, the sky was shining, and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. Just like 2 years ago, Naruto had big news to tell._

_Just like 2 years ago, he was looking for a special someone._

_Sakura Haruno had worn her last name for over 20 years. At 21 and unmarried, _and _a ninja, her prospects at marriage were extremely dim. No one wanted to care much about someone who might die at any moment, and she doubted Naruto would ask her hand in matrimony any time soon. Not that she expected that he did._

_Naruto Uzumaki strolled in through the pink-haired kunoichi's familiar front gate that he himself had installed. In his pocket was the box._

THE Box.

_And in his other hand was a bouquet of flowers that had Sakura's favorite combination of flowers. He had decided already. She may not expect it, and when he thought of it himself, he hadn't expected it from himself. He was just as surprised at his decision as she was going to be._

_He was going to ask for her hand in marriage._

_Nothing exaggeratedly done (As ninjas they both hated things over-done, and except for the intense bouts of love that they both enjoyed on their dates, they generally kept the relationship at practical non-overdone way) but a nice 'traditional' proposal with flowers. Just the way he had imagined it: Simple but romantic._

_He opened the front door and found Sakura inside, doing some general cleaning. He didn't miss a beat. Unfazed, but still nervous, he strode as confidently as he could into the living room, and collected Sakura's mouth in a kiss. Surprised, yet in a pleasant way, Sakura pulled away after a few moments, and asked_

"_To what is this surprise?"_

_Naruto continued before he lost his bravado, and dropped to one knee. _

_The box was already in his hand._

* * *

By the time Sakura woke up, she heard and smelled the sizzling breakfast that Naruto had been busy making. She threw the covers off her body, and gracefully stood on the floor.

After breakfast, today was the day Naruto became something greater than just a Jounin.

Today was the day Naruto became something more than a mere _ninja._

Today, Naruto became the Toad Sannin.

Sakura smiled

* * *

**A/N: sigh My huuuuuuuuge bad for not updating earlier. No wireless internet is messed up when your only ethernet cable is permanently attached to a vonage phone, so sorry for taking so long. And also, this chapter wasn't as long as I originally expected but I know that things will pick up as soon as the action arcs begin. **

**Sorry for making such lengthy flashback moment there, but I felt I needed to expand a little more on the NaruSaku aspect of the story, because there won't be very many of these moments for a few chapters. I think that if every chapter has a fluffy aspect to it, I might deviate from the original plan and plot. Plus, it slows down the overall speed and flow of the story. So from now own, the NaruSaku moments won't be as much as the previous 3 chapters (As in, a whole chapter dedicated to the pairing) but don't fret. I'll still make sure it has its whole-chapter fluff every ONCE IN A WHILE.**

**Peace, reviewers... Tell me what you think.**


	6. Old Past, New Future

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Honestly, I don't really get why people put that disclaimer, cause it's stupid. It's not like anyone is going to sue you for writing a fanfic about the characters he/she created. So from now on I'll stop putting in a disclaimer. Sides, it's quite obvious I don't own Naruto!**

* * *

Trumpets were blowing, confetti was exploding and the villagers were cheering. A cacophony of noise that was heard all over Konoha, and Naruto was thick in it.

The day had finally come. All the waiting, the preparing, the twisting stomach, the training. It was all for this moment.

Uzumaki Naruto became Konoha's Toad Sannin on that day.

He walked alone down the streets, a nervous smile plastered on his face, the now adoring villagers cheering for him.

_To think that just months ago they would be jeering at me. Now they call my name and shout for me. Being a shinobi is messed up._

He concluded privately to himself. Although Sakura had promised to be at the Hokage tower with Tsunade by the time Naruto reached the tower even with Kyubi-enhanced sight she was nowhere to be found. The tower itself was a mile away, but as Naruto blinked, yellow cat-like slits appeared in his eyes, and the tower loomed up, apparently just a foot away. The vision enhancement was thanks to a dojutsu gift from the fox, and though wary of any tricks, Naruto was thankful for it nonetheless.

Naruto turned back, and waved to the villagers, at least _trying _to play the part of a happy newly-promoted nin, but the grin was only an act. Though he was becoming an important part of the community, he felt a heavy tug on his heart when he thought how he was replacing Jiraiya. It felt a little disrespectful. Living and fighting in his former mentor's shadow would be tough, but Naruto had to anyways.

It was his duty.

But finally after some more blocks and more villagers (Naruto reasoned that there couldn't be anymore, but was wrong as he arrived at the tower) the Naruto's party arrived at the Hokage Tower, with Naruto in front and alone, the rest of the escort party behind him.

And suddenly the cheers and noise fell silent.

* * *

Tsunade appeared on the highest balcony in the Tower, her two most senior aides, Sakura and Shizune by her side. Her blue eyes were piercing, and she commanded such a presence as Hokage that even Naruto stopped and was respectfully silent. This was time for being serious. Simultaneously the thousands of assembled villagers and hundreds of ninjas fell silent as there leader appeared before them. As one, they all bowed down and uttered

"Hokage-sama..."

Leaving only Tsunade, her apprentices and Naruto standing. Shocked, Naruto pivoted on his heels and saw the grand multitude on their knees, no one expecting Naruto to do the same. As far as the civilians were concerned, Sannin and Hokage were on the same level. And the nins did the same, but more out of respect of Naruto's power. Even they were both for different reasons, both communities respected Naruto. Which is what he had always wanted and finally had.

"Uzumaki Naruto!"

Naruto turned at the sound of his name, and craned his neck up at the balcony, where Tsunade had barked out the seven syllables of his name.

"You have been called by the Council in accordance to the previously agreed date to speak of your promotion to the title and status of the Toad Sannin of Konoha. We will speak of your duties and privileges as Sannin." Her voice was extremely meticulous and formal, "The council beckons you to enter into their presence" And as she said this, a hint of contempt for the council manged to enter her voice. She turned on her heels and left.

Sakura managed to catch the blonde's eye. Her face was stoney, yet her eyes were shining, and Naruto knew she was happy.

* * *

Naruto entered the quiet atrium in the chamber before the council's main room where he enjoyed the momentary piece before the tension in the council. He knew what was coming next, as Tsunade had drilled in in what to be prepared for. He wrung his hands nervously as he rehearsed in his head what was about to happen.

"_Be ready, Naruto" _Tsunade's voice echoed in his head. "_What's going to happen in there has a lot to do with power plays going on in the Council already. They are going to argue that as Sannin you will have command over certain things, but will obviously try to keep you from certain rights and extremely hard from some privileges" Tsunade's gaze was unflinching and hateful as she spoke of the treacherous council. I am going to argue in your favor, and if I can't even get you some more rights, then the issue will have been concluded without a fight in favor of the council. You must remain silent, even in spite of the worst insults, which will probably come from Danzo._

_Naruto remained silent and nodded to indicate his understanding. _

"_OK then, go get ready. The procession will begin shortly"_

The short preparation talk had been extremely short and brief, said to Naruto that very morning when he had been in the Hokage's office for some brief words as friends before they had to act as a leader addressing a lower unit in the military.

At that very moment, a junior aide to the Hokage entered, her heels clacking on the floor. It was some strange new fashion in Konoha, shoes with long thin poles jutting out from the bottom called 'Pumps' and apparently popular with the civilians.

"The council will see you know" she announced crisply, and turned the other way down the hall, with a stack of administrative papers in her arms, ready to be signed by some senior aide.

Naruto stood up and tried to shake the feeling of apprehension. He should be feeling happy. He would be shouldering more responsibility, responsibility which would help him learn the skills needed to become the Hokage in the future. He would also be replacing his master at the job he had always done and loved, and Naruto, after days of reflecting on it, could not help believing that maybe he wasn't the right choice for the job.

_But no time for any of that thinking _He thought to himself, realizing sadly that this was the point of no return.

As he stood, he he quickly bolted down the Kyuubi inside with his mental strength, otherwise, a 4-tailed Naruto might erupt at the sound of the arrogant insults that would be thrown at him inside.

He stepped through the dark corridor and was rewarded with chaos.

* * *

The council itself was a group of elders that had been handpicked by someone at some point in Konoha's history. No one really knew who or when. From then on, the council had been self-sustaining, each generation of councilors appointing the next one. Because of this system, the batches of elders usually were different from one another, or chillingly the same in rare cases. The current Council replaced the previous one on several suspicious accounts. Danzo, the warhawk for example replaced the previous Elder who died mysteriously. And not surprisingly each council member was each in the Council for their own reasons for power. One Elder was constantly trying to undermine the other, hoping to take his position. (For there were never any female council members. It was too precarious a position to become an Elder in an environment as sexist as the Council was)

And amongst these power-plays Naruto was being promoted to Sannin, was could potentially cause a major political disaster in Konoha. As each Council member had his own reasons for giving or taking away power from Naruto, Tsunade would have trouble trying a compromise that would give Naruto as much power as possible, while pleasing the most possible Elders, and displeasing the least.

_On the bright side _Naruto reflected _Is that at least I'm going to be Sannin, regardless on what they agree on for me._

That was already a given, as all the Elders agreed that a new Sannin was needed to replace Jiraiya as soon as possible. But that was something that chilled Naruto. The fact that he was a _replacement_

"The Council will now receive you! Uzumaki Naruto! Rise and address the Council!" The centermost and senior Elder commanded.

From his position in a Court-like seat, Naruto rose and introduced himself unnecessarily. All of the Council members knew who he was, but formalities had to be kept.

"I am Uzumaki Naruto, former Apprentice to Jiraiya. I am a ninja loyal and faithful to Konoha who holds the rank of Jounin and is looking to earn the right to become the Toad Sannin in the name of Konoha. I thank the Grand Council"

He stuttered on the last part, slightly doubting the truthfulness of those words. Tsunade had told Naruto to say exactly that, but he didn't quite understand what he was thanking the Council for.

"Honored Hokage, would you rise to begin reading what you propose as rights for Uzumaki-san as Toad Sannin"

It was hard to read any of the council members, as the room was dark and they were sitting on a high dais, but Naruto knew that the Elders were probably seething quietly to themselves how a demon could possibly hold one of the highest ranks for a Konoha ninja. He felt his own anger flare, but suppressed it, and he kept his head bowed.

"I propose for Naruto," Tsunade began, purposefully using Naruto's first name to indicate that she was on said ninja's side, "To have full rights as any high ranking general in Konoha's army. Specifically, command over at least two platoons of troops, and in the case of war, three platoons,"

Several gasps of surprise and disdain were heard around the room as the council members each digested the raw power that Naruto would have in the Military. A platoon in Konoha was worth at least 300 men. And Konoha itself only had 10 platoons. Even Naruto was in awe of the audacity of such a proposition.

"I must object, Honored Hokage,"

Everyone turned to the voice, which unsurprisingly came from Danzo, who himself only had command of 1 platoon. Tsunade's eyebrow shot straight up as she sized up Danzo as an opponent in a head-to-head political battle. She concluded that she could at least aim for two platoons with Danzo. He wasn't exactly a push-over, but would certainly keel from the direct pressure of the Hokage.

"What are your objections, Honored Council Elder Danzo? I see no problem with that amount of power for such a high-ranking Ninja as Sannin"

"Problems? There are no problems, simply inconveniences. First of all, such amazing power should be held by no one except an Elder or a Hokage!"

There he made his first mistake. He implied that the Hokage could have that alluring power, power that Tsunade already held.

"Secondly, it would be a tactical mistake to give such numbers to just a Jounin, who while may have experience in leading small teams would have in no way the ability necessary to command large numbers"

Second mistake. Danzo implied that Naruto would have a lack of skill to do anything of importance.

"And finally that power would be in much better hands to someone with much more experience and ability, someone possibly with much seniority, like perhaps someone in the council," Final mistake, he implied that the power should be his own.

Tsunade's nostrils flared while she considered everything said. At this point, Naruto himself was already just a spectator, as he had no idea how to deal with such insubordination. Although politically savvy to recognize insults behinds those 'inconveniences' he would have no idea how to deal with them.

_Better to watch Tsunade and learn how, then to rush in now, and make everything worse _he though uncharacteristically. It seemed like ever since Jiraiya's death he became more sullen and patient.

"Thank you for your suggestions Honored Council Member Danzo, but I believe that your objections in this case can be considered moot. All of us may have started green, but quickly learned how to be effective leaders. I believe that this will be the case with Naruto. He has proven himself several times in the past to have considerable skills in leading, and has been taught many skills by Jiraiya, among them tactical and strategic ones that are used when leading multitudes. And besides, don't you already command a platoon, Elder Danzo?"

She finished off on that final thrust that squarely caught the warhawk's petition and then ripped it apart. Tactful yet not so delicate as to leave any doubt on whether or not the petition would be heeded.

Danzo looked stricken and was left with his mouth open at such a relative straight-on rebuke. Intelligently, however, he let the matter be.

* * *

The rest of the negotiations took all afternoon, and it looked like it would never stop. Naruto had not spoken a word all day, at least after his own brief introduction. Tsunade herself was getting tired of the stubbornness that the Council pointedly displayed all day, and her annoyance was etched onto her face in a clear scowl. Naruto's butt had also fallen asleep, and he was getting impatient as well. The Elders continued rattling on, 'explaining' the political deadfalls that could happen if some generic right was given to Naruto, or the military defeats that could happen if certain commands were given to him.

It was never ending and boring, but it didn't last _forever. Finally _after _hours _of negotiations, it ended nobody happy with the results and everybody unsatisfied. Except for some small victories, Tsunade came it with only three-quarters of the powers for Naruto than what she originally had planned.

As they walked out of the tower together both blondes discussed what had the afternoons processions awarded them with.

"Well, to begin with, I got you the full command of the platoons I originally had proposed" Tsunade said, beginning their own informal meeting.

"However, it's not as good as it sounds. The platoons will only be under you full command in case of a war. Otherwise, you can only have a company for yourself as a small task-force. You know, in case of any large-man non-war mission. In the case of storming some outpost, the mission will be considered non-war, however in storming say, the Sound Village, it would be a war mission."

"That doesn't said too bad" Naruto commented, "Those Council Elders are dumb-asses though. They would probably send me out to storm a Village with only a Company and call it non-war. Damn people wouldn't even care if I died" he finished sadly. And though it hurt to say so it was true enough.

"That's not all though Naruto. You'll have full security clearances, meaning you will be able to access top-secret and above-top-secret information meant usually only for me. So that's a win. Oh, and you'll be allowed to be abroad without any communication for at least three years. Any more than that, and you'll be considered a missin-nin. But you won't get a hunter-nin for at least another year at that point, in case you are in a dangerous position and can't send any communications. So you have the full trust of Konoha, and of course you will be given the title of Sannin. And finally, you will be guaranteed the position of Hokage when I retire"

* * *

Naruto froze.

"I'll be guaranteed _what?!_" He exploded suddenly. Naruto couldn't believe his ears. Normally, he'd be against any guarantee of any kind, preferring to earn the position on his own. But Naruto would be the Toad Sannin, _definitely _earning the position. He was just surprised that he would be given the job so easily.

"Yup!" Tsunade grinned "You'll be given the rank of and job of Hokage. Of course, after at least five years of being Sannin. You need some experience from _somewhere_. Besides, I still want this job for some more years. I need some _things _to sort out before I leave" She jerked her thumb back towards the Hokage Tower where the Council Elder Chamber was.

Naruto was ecstatic, he let out a shout of glee and happiness and literally leapt into a tree nearby. From there he could see over the whole Village. It was so peaceful at this time of the night, right before the sunrise. The houses looked sleepy, like they themselves were tired and groggy. The trees were dancing and whispering amongst themselves to the music of the wind, chimes around them singing out to the world. He looked down at the park where Tsunade was looking up at him and smiling. The land was a sea of green, with sprinkles of purple here and there where the heather was springing up. The night was almost over and the day was beginning. Tomorrow would be a new day, and the village would spring up with life. The merchants would crowd the streets hawking their wares to curious customers. People would be among the streets each having their own life and story to tell. Childen would run amuk playing their games and sining their songs. The mischievousness of youth would live on daily, similar to Naruto himself in his childish years. And at 15, he could say he had a future here with his village. He looked out at his village again.

_His _village.

And finally, Naruto looked up to where the faces of all the Hokage's were etched into rock. He saw his father's face (He had been told about his heritage a year before the fateful Pein mission) carved into the rock, his featured seemingly smiling at his son. Naruto chest swelled with pride. Soon, he would be up there with his father, side by side. Suddenly, the first tendrils of sunlight began to creep over the darkness and began to color Konoha. The sun's rays were beautiful, and she painted a masterpiece of beauty and color for the blonde.

The sun rose, and with it a new day and new era for Naruto.

Naruto awoke, the strands of the sun's golden hair caressing his face, urging him to awake. He opened his eyes, and stared at the ceiling for a moment. Everything seemed the same, yet somehow the world had become poetic and artistic, in a matter of a few hours. Suddenly, everything was far away from him. As he lay there in his bed, he forgot everything and everyone. Tsunade, being a Sannin, _even Sakura_ melted away from his world for a few seconds. And for a moment, he thought he saw a gray headed man, with a smiled plastered on his face. And beside him, on the ceiling was a blonde haired man, strong and tall that seemed to have a grin that came from pride and happiness.

Then, after a moment they disappeared, and Naruto fell back to sleep. He would have to wake up and train of course, but all that could wait for a while.

It was the first day of the rest of his life, and he wanted to sleep in.

* * *

**A/N: Ok, HUUUUUUUUUUGE sorry for not updating earlier. I honestly had no reason why I didn't update earlier, but to atone, I made a long(er) chapter so you just enjoy that. Read, Review, Thanks.**


	7. Home Coming

**A/N: Humblest of apologies from your author for not updating sooner. Hehe... scratches head sheepishly As you can see, I uh... Well, frankly I'm horrible with consistency (In terms of update-like things. My quality of writing, I assure you will try to be consistent. Of course, you all be the judge of that), but there's really nothing else I can say besides sorry, and point out the fact that there are a lot of authors who update late (No offense). And then of course, there is the possibility that I'm exaggerating, and that to most of you this is a speedy update. Anyways, tell me your thoughts in a review, and please point out any mistakes. Oh, and thanks to CLOUD-EX-SOLDIER (Did I get that right?) For his appreciated thoughts on my previous chapter. You are completely right, of course, but I honestly don't know much about that type of organizing, so pardon the error.**

**Whew! That is _the _longest A/N post I've ever had, and I'm sure you want to read the rest of the chapter. Read, Review, Thanks!**

* * *

The forest was silent, peace and quiet manifested itself throughout the greenery. It was a beautiful forest, one in which birds chirped during the day, and crickets sung at night. The sunlight managed to shaft in through holes in the canopy, lighting the way in the otherwise dark tree tops through which Naruto dashed. But there was suddenly, something interrupted the quiet.

_Snap!_

Naruto turned towards the bush from where the sound emanated. Here, in the forests nearby Konoha he had to be careful to mop up any enemy nins, less they attack Konoha. The blonde ninja listened carefully.

A bush rustle there, a twig snapping here, it all lead the inevitable attack. Warily, Naruto eyed the forest, taking note of anything out of the ordinary. On his guard, he also cautiously began scanning the treetops with his Kyuubi Dojutsu. Suddenly, a green blur exploded out of the forest canopy and hurtled down towards Naruto.

He quickly stepped into a defensive Taijutsu stance and with his forearm deflected the blur, wincing at the friction, but letting the pain go with just a grunt. Before he could kick at the strange object, it disappeared into the forest again.

_Damn... It's the third time this month that thing appears. I need to report that to the Hokage right away! _He thought to himself. The mysterious green blur repeatedly displayed this behaviour. It would strike out at Naruto after stalking him for a few meters, then dash back into the forest. At first Naruto thought that it could be a local wildlife critter that got out of hand, but dismissed this idea after the second attack. This third encounter only confirmed the fact that it was not of a regular kind of being.

Naruto was returning from his third intelligence gathering mission, coming back from Suna this time. He found nothing of importance from his sources, and nothing was amiss anywhere in the Land of Fire.

Which only meant trouble was brewing.

It wasn't common for _nothing _to be wrong, usually it was the calm before the storm. Something was going to happen sometime soon, and Naruto didn't like it.

_Well, I don't know what the green thing was, but I don't have time to think about that. It seems relatively harmless, so I guess I'll just recommend a gennin team to work on it. There are things with higher priorities on my mind right now..._

Naruto concluded.

Bounding through he trees, everything passed as the blonde raced towards Konoha. After reporting to Tsunade, he would find Sakura and maybe take her out to dinner. They hadn't had a nice night like that for weeks...

The gates loomed up and Naruto jumped out of the canopy, fell for at least 20 feet, then softened his landing by pumping chakra to his legs. The ground cracked underneath the intense force, but Naruto simpy grunted at the relatively low amount of exertion. The gate keepers stared with incredulous eyes at the sudden appearance of their Sannin, to which Naruto casually addressed,

"What?"

* * *

The Tower's gates were wide open when Naruto arrived, but he opted instead to run up the side of the building. He hated passing by the council Elder's chambers; it always reminded him of the hate the Council held for him. Of course, nowadays, the Elders were relatively introverted, compared to the three years ago when Naruto had first been named as Sannin.

And Naruto himself had changed too. Besides being older, the now 18-year-old was much more ripped thanks to intense training with Gai and Lee (Though Naruto couldn't stand another shout of 'YOUTH' so the training didn't last long). His old flame Gi had been left behind, ripped and tattered over the battles and training sessions.

Naruto now covered his over-6-foot frame with long green robes that let him pass by inconspicuously in enemy towns. Underneath the deceiving robes however, were his true clothes. Black chainmail was worn right over his skin in case of any surprise Kunai attack. Over that, he donned a new Gi that was black with his own Spiral Symbol on the back, which in the center had the Kanji symbol for 'My Precious People'.

His arms now had tattoos which were used to seal weapons, and on his back he had one long horizontal tattoo that concealed his new, signature weapon. Of course, Naruto kept the weapon sealed at all times except for battle. Finally, his old sandals had been replaced as well. Sadly, the wooden things were too awkward for battle, despite the fact that his master had used them during fights. Naruto had reluctantly replaced them with old cloth ninja boots with a steel plate imbedded in the rubber soles, to add power for kicks

Tsunade turned around the moment she sensed the chakra signature that belonged to Naruto. It was quite distinctive and she could recognize it anywhere.

"Any news?" she asked, concern for her village in plain sight.

"No," Naruto shook his head "Nothing yet. It's too quiet though. Something's going to happen. I can smell it"

"Mhmm..." Tsunade silently agreed. She was lost in thought, pondering what her old team-mate, Orochimary was planning.

He was basically the only threat Konoha had nowadays. Most enemy villages had been each soundly defeated in their own time, politically or violently. Either way, she was glad that Orochimaru was the only thing that they had to seriously worry about.

"Baa-chan? There is one small issue though" Naruto began, "There's this green thing in the forest, it's really strange. It has the appearance of a small little green blur, and it's really annoying. When I was coming in from Suna today, it attacked me. Damn thing gave me a nasty rub burn,"

Naruto bared his forearm before continuing,

"I don't think it's too dangerous, but I recommend you send in a gennin squad to check it out. It might fight back though, so I'd classify it as a C-Rank mission" he finished.

Tsunade nodded

"I'll get the paperwork done right away," she said. As Naruto turned away she perked up, however, as if remembering something.

"Hey Naruto!"

Said blonde turned around and nodded his head in a questioning gesture

"What's up?"

"I have a mission you need done pretty soon. S-Rank, so come in tomorrow before you do anything outside the village. I'll brief you on your assignment, and we'll discuss the details"

"Hai" Naruto acknowledged, then sunshined out.

* * *

Sakura was tending to her gardens _again _when Naruto found her. It was like that was the only thing she did that was not ninja-related. Naruto let himself in by the gate, and greeted her with a hug.

"Hello, Cherry Blosom!" he whispered into her ear.

Sakura giggled uncharacteristically at sound of Naruto's pet name for her. She liked it when her boyfriend called her that.

She invited him into the the house. Once sat down, they did some small talk, not really talking anything serious. They did that all the time, trying to prolong the inevitable ninja-talk, speaking about their careers and missions. It was what the did, but talking about their duties reminded them of the real world, in which either of the couple could be killed. The Pein mission had been a severe lesson in death.

"So... I got an S-Rank today" Naruto began, deciding to tell Sakura and get over with it before asking her out.

"Huh? Anything especially dangerous?" Sakura asked casually. She was a worry wart when it came to the Toad Sannin, and she wanted to make sure it would be all right.

"I don't know yet. Baa-Chan" he stopped when Sakura looked at him sternly

"I mean _Tsunade-sama _just told me about it today. She hasn't briefed me yet"

He thought a moment before continuing

"But it most be something important for her to pull me off intelligence-gathering and do something else..."

Sakura agreed. It wasn't like Tsunade to simply give up on her main intel-gatherer, if only for the duration of a single S-Rank.

Something was up, but neither Kunoichi nor Sannin would know until tomrrow.

Before leaving, Naruto set up their date for that night, agreeing to pick her up at sunset. He set out to find Lee and have light spar before turning in for the day. it was his usual precedure for most days. He found the spandex-clad Taijutsu master breaking logs at his favorite training grounds. Although he no longer was being trained by Gai (Lee was a Jounin now), he still kept to his rigorous training program that he had always used.

Naruto greeted him first.

* * *

"Hey Lee!"

Naruto began, trying to steer the conversation on a path that would end the talking quickly, and start the fighting soon.

He swore that if heard Lee say 'Youth!' too many times _in one_ sentence, he would knock out the Green Beast right then and there.

"Naruto! I knew you were coming. I could feel the flames of your youth from MILES away! _YOSH!_" and so, Lee began his usual rant of 'Youth'.

Naruto stopped him before he would have to hurt the dome-head.

"Yeah, yeah! Great! Ok, whatever, Lee. Light contact or full?" He asked, referring to the severity of the blows exchanged. Light contact would mean 'pulling your punch', while full meant the opposite.

"Full contact of course, Youthful Naruto!" Lee grinned, then fell into his Goken stance. Naruto too fell into a brawling stance, but since he didn't have any set Taijutsu style, the stance was mainly to look cool. If anything, his own fighting style was close to an ancient Land of Fire fighting style called Krav Maga. Though, it was a brutal style, aimed mainly to be able to defend against several combatants in real-world scenarios.

Lee was the first to move, shifting to his right side, then spinning on his left to aim a high kick at Naruto's head. Though it was strong enough to break a bone, Naruto applied Chakra to his arm to block the blow, and then open-palm slapped Lee's chest bone to push him back. The force of his slap however knocked Lee over.

Two seconds into the match, Naruto had already knocked the Green Beast down.

Lee grunted from the floor but nevertheless attacked. He braced himself on the floor and spun like a top, his legs lashing out to Naruto.

Naruto jumped over one leg, and Chakra-blocked the other and was about to kick Lee himself, but never saw a bandaged fist come his way in a straight-vertical uppercut. The punch sent him flying into a tree, which broke. However Naruto didn't seemed harmed in the least, lest a small trickle of blood coming from his mouth.

"Nice blow, Lee" he grunted.

Lee just smiled, and charged again. This time, he jumped up and kicked downwards, his left leg slicing the air with an audible _Hiss! _Naruto neatly sidestepped it, then aimed a right hook at Lee's face. Lee dodged under it and came up with his knee, aimed at Naruto's gut.

Naruto was ready for it though, and gave Lee a hard strike on his knee with a Chakra-enhanced elbow. It hurt Lee more a lot more than it did Naruto, and the dome-head howled in pain.

He hopped up and down for a moment, clutching at his knee.

"Naruto-san! That was quite un-youthful of you! That strike hurt _a lot!_"

Naruto wasn't worried though, he knew Lee hadn't been seriously hurt. It was the blonde's turn to grin this time, and he charged too.

Running forward, he cocked a fist which he let fly as Lee fell into striking distance. Lee used his wrist to knock aside the blow then shifted forward with his full weight into a bare-knuckle punch aimed at Naruto face. Naruto quickly lifted up his free arm and managed the catch the fist with a meaty

_THWACK!_

He winced at the sound, while Lee mentally berated himself for not even be able to break Naruto hand. In fact, more bone damage had been delt to Lee in the short spar battle. Breaking off the fist, Lee began to move into a clock-wise low-kick, aimed at sweeping Naruto off his feet.

Without breaking a sweat, Naruto jumped up and over the kick, falling into another stance after dodging the sweep.

The pair began a hard, close-range taijutsu spar, each ducking and striking, each trying to get an edge over their opponent. Naruto deflecting and redirecting the energy from Lee's hits, with the Green Beast doing his straight-forward blocks and attacks. Lee was more proficient in Taijutsu, but Naruto had more experience for fighting in-general. It was the experience that ultimately decided the match. With one final thrust, Naruto smacked Lee a clean blow on the side of the face, which knocked Lee out. The taijutsu specialist went flying into a grove of trees, knocking down quite a few before finally coming to a rest some 20 feet away from Naruto, whose palm was still extended. Panting a bit, he lowered the hand and went over to Lee, going to rouse him.

When Lee came to, there were no hard feelings, because they had been fighting full contact anyways.

"I see you have much improved for taijutsu, youthful Naruto!" Lee exclaimed, not unhappy in the slightest for being defeated.

Naruto himself was quite proud of himself for knocking Lee out so cleanly.

"Duh! I'm Sannin, I _have _to improve. But you gave me a pretty hard knock on a tree, dumbass" he answered, finishing the comment on a congratulatory note. Lee had done well himself.

After getting themselves dusted off, each ninja said farewell, and headed their own ways back home.

* * *

Naruto walked slowly back home, the moonlight right behind him, illuminating the almost empty streets. Contrary to previous years, nowadays Naruto got smiles from villagers at the most, while quick escapes by the people at the least. Some villagers respected him only out of power while other genuinely liked him. His date was over too, so he had nothing to do that night besides going home. After he had kissed Sakura goodnight, he left her at home, and headed to his own aboide.

He kicked at the cobblestone path absentmindedly while deep in thought. The main thought in this case was the mission for the next day, hinted at by Tsunade.

_Wonder what it could be, _he questioned.

Like Sakura, he too was worried at the fact that Tsunade was pulling him off intel-gathering for an S-Class. So that meant it was something a regular Jounin couldn't handle.

Something only the Toad Sannin could handle. Which was quite worrying. Naruto finally reached his house and fished out the keys from his robe. He was in the process of opening the door when suddenly...

_BAM!_

Knocked to the floor, and stunned, Naruto looked up from his position on his haunches and grimaced as a familiar green blur bounded away at top speed through the buildings and alleys. The infuriating little thing had just knocked him down and was getting away!

_Damnit! What the hell _is _that?! _Naruto mentally exclaimed. The damn blur had attacked him in his own home turf, Konoha, where _Naruto _was supposed to have the advantage. Momentarily debating whether or not to report this immediately or simply chasing after it only took some seconds. After taking a moment to lock his house's door soundly, he gathered his legs into a low crouch, then with a cement-shattering _crack _was off into the night.

As the buildings shifted from large objects to narrow blurs, Naruto activated the Kyuubi Dojutsu to allow his vision to be able to keep up with his fast speed. Already the green blur was starting to sharpen in his view, and he could see that it wasn't simply a blur. Naruto mentally checked off its appearance.

_Hmm... Green in appearance, but with yellow stripes on both sides. Spherical in shape, but with a flat side. And those spikes jutting out like a hedgehog... It must be what caused the massive friction last time I saw it. It... It kind've looks _mechanical_. I've never seen anything like it!_

Naruto ran up the side of a particularly tall building, then jumped into the air into the next one, backflipping to lower his head to avoid a sign. Then he sprinted over the roof, his boots silent as a ghost, slowly but surely catching up to his quarry.

_I'm close! _He thought _I'll catch up to whatever-it-is soon!_

But their was no further time for thinking. The chase had managed to extend itself into the woods surrounding the village, where Naruto could lose the strange green machine. And that he did. In less than a second the green... _thing _veered off into the foliage.

* * *

Naruto stopped dead in his tracks, considering what to do next. Their were a few options. He could of course follow the strange object, hoping to find it again and subdue it. But there was the large, inevitable possibility of the fact that Naruto probably wouldn't be able to find it again.

Uncharacteristically, he began to methodically evaluate his options to find a new path.

_I could go back to Baa-chan, _he began, but quickly abandoned the idea. By the time he had a search-squad out for the machine, it could be long gone.

But he _needed _to know what it was. This fourth attack _in Konoha _had cleared _any _doubts in his mind that the machine was anything but of sinister design.

He turned his back to the forest and was about to jump into the darkness, back towards the village, when a single voice struck loud through the night. The voice that Naruto had at one point held dear, as one would hold dear a brother's voice.

One that he had not heard in over two years.

One voice that he now heard again, and recognized it still.

Naruto looked high into the trees, where a single body, shrouded in shadow, was visible.

Save for two red orbs with a spiral-shape irises. Naruto began to shake in fury, the abandonment of a past comrade still fresh in his heart. A few heartbeats passed before the words the intruder spoke registered in Naruto's head. The words shook him to the core

"Hey dobe. Fancy seeing you around here. I see you're still a loser, huh?"

Sasuke was back.


	8. The Devil is in the Details

**A/N: Wooooooooooooo. Damn, it's been the longest time since I've updated. I finally got around to doing it though, and should probably stick to a once-per-week update schedule. Anyway, fight scene, plot development, and finally a bit of progression in terms of story. Read, review, etc.**

_

* * *

Shit._

Naruto scanned the tree-line again, but the glowing orbs were gone. The voice was Sasuke's, but… He was _dead, _wasn't he? Naruto had been there, at the time of his death. He had watched the Sound's kunai enter his comrade's head; he had carried the body back to Konoha himself.

The forest became unnervingly quiet, and Naruto deftly reached for a kunai in its leg holster, before speaking out.

"Sasuke?"

Silence was his response. Circling around, with the kunai at the ready, he continued to search in the shadows for his friend turned apparent enemy. It was weird, really. Sasuke died a friend, but the words Naruto had heard made him uneasy. It was the voice of the old Sasuke that he had fought against several times over the years. Naruto probed the forest with his hyper-sensitive ears, but nothing seemed to be out of place.

He jumped into a tree, hoping to get a better look of the forest. Everything was quiet. Naruto let out a sigh of relief. There was no way it was Sasuke for real. He was imagining things. But… what if it was? He didn't allow himself to relax, so when the inevitable attack came, he was at full combat attention.

An arrowhead of throwing stars sliced through the air at Naruto, coming from a dark corner of the forest floor that he had not considered in his earlier scan. Instantly, Naruto was in the air flipping, throwing a star himself at the corner, but was only rewarded with the dull thwacking of metal against wood.

_Replacement jutsu? _Naruto asked himself.

He was answered by a grunt from behind him, followed by an explosion of pain at the back of his head. He tumbled to the ground, smacking face first into the gritty dirt of the forest with a meaty smack.

_Too fast… On your toes, Naruto! _He scolded himself.

He spat out dirt angrily from his mouth, and grunted while he bunched up muscles to get himself up. The foe – Naruto wasn't sure it was Sasuke yet – was upon Naruto before he could get himself up. A fist found its way to his face, but he managed to get a hand up to it before it connected. Instantly, he threw it away, and launched his own right cross as the enemy. His foe was as quick as the shadows that hid him though, and Naruto's fist found only air. The enemy leapt back into the darkness offered by the trees and Naruto knew that if he didn't find him fast enough, the enemy would be at an advantage.

_Enough, time to take the offense._

"Shadow clone jutsu!"

Instantly, three Naruto clones popped out of smoke, and stood battle-ready.

"Fan out, two meters space, five up front. Move it." Naruto ordered. Obediently, the clones fanned out with two meters space in between each other, five meters in front of their master.

As they guarded the front, Naruto spun around, lighting his Kyuubi eyes. Felines slits broke the darkness of the night as he searched for the enemy.

_There! Nine o'clock, up high in the trees!_

He dug his heels deep into the dirt, and launched himself into the air. A foot lashed out at him, but he flipped over horizontally onto his back in midair, and extended his own foot out, hoping to plant it on his adversary's face. He grimaced when his foot instead found a hand gripping it, and he grunted when he was spun around, his face slamming into a tree trunk hard enough to break teeth and bone.

The clone poofed into smoke, and the intruder's eyes widened in surprise.

"_Rasengan!" _came the high-pitched cry, and the enemy only had a second to react before the blue orb crushed his chest.

Effortlessly, he reached out, and caught Naruto's hand. The movement, however, exposed the figure to the moonlight, and Naruto choked down a gasp as the face become clear.

"Sasuke!"

The Uchiha's eyes bored into Naruto's own, and he had to muster all of his resolve to not look away.

"Naruto. Sloppy as always, I see" Sasuke's words rang out in the silence of the night, and Naruto almost shivered at the menacing tone of his words.

"What the hell is wrong with you? It's me! Naruto!"

"I see that. I wouldn't kill you otherwise."

"What are you talking abo-" Naruto instantly was silenced, pain washing over him in waves on his side. He managed to grunt, and his hand groped his hip. The handle of a kunai barely stuck out, and as he shifted his leg, he could feel the grinding of the tip against his bone.

Sasuke coldly stared at his friend's pain, and let go of his wrist.

"That kunai is tipped with poison. Five minutes from now you will die. Enjoy the time you have left."

"Bastard!" Naruto managed between gritted teeth. The pain was excruciating. Sasuke must have added something acidic to the poison to irritate the wound as soon as it opened.

The raven-haired man, however, did not look back as he leapt into the trees, his menacing silhouette highlighted against the moon.

* * *

Naruto lay on the ground, and moaned as another fresh wave of fiery pain washed over him. He noticed with grim satisfaction though, that he could still maintain his train of thought through the agony. He was still far from death.

_Shit, shit, SHIT! Got… to… get this thing OUT!_

He mentally checked his resources. Both his clones had dispelled, and he didn't have it in him to summon more. The pain he felt was not unknown, in fact, based on the smell emanating from the wound, and the type of fiery pain, he thought that the poison used was probably extracted from a plant called Nightshade. It was common enough around Konoha, but also extremely powerful. In fact, five minutes was a pretty accurate estimate of how long he had left. The treatment, however, was not difficult to administer. What he needed was a milk thistle seed, which he could crush in his mouth, and apply to the wound.

First though, he needed to get the kunai in his hip out, before he could treat the wound properly. Mind racing, he rehearsed what needed to be done. Stiffening momentarily as the pain became unbearable for a few seconds, he lay on the ground gasping for air.

_Quickly now, must hurry! _He thought.

He was methodical in his movements now. From his pack, he retrieved some trip-wire chord, the ones usually used to create traps along with blast tags. He cut out a length about thirty centimeters long, his fangs easily slicing the material. Out his leg holster, he retrieved another kunai, and looped the chord through the holster's finger grip, knotting it securely. The other end he knotted around the small hole jutting out from the kunai embedded in his hip.

Now the hard part. Propped up against a tree, his breathing rate increased rapidly as he prepared himself mentally for what he was about to do. In one swift, sudden movement, he ripped out the kunai from his leg. His eyes widened instantly in pain, and a guttural throaty roar of agony erupted from his lips, as the kunai ripped a chunk of his flesh out of his hip as it came out.

_Bastard! It was barbed!_

But he couldn't stop now; he could still feel the burning afflicting coursing through his veins. He sighed though, as the imbedded kunai allowed his leg more movement. Still though, he knew he didn't have much time left, his limbs were already stiffening, and he could feel the effort and strain that his heart was suffering through to pump his blood.

Naruto's hand groped blindly around the forest floor as he searched desperately for the milk thistle plant. All over his nearby area his hands groped, but the herb was nowhere to be found.

He groaned inwardly, that meant he needed to move. It had been already about four minutes, he had at the most another two minutes before he blacked out, another thirty seconds after that before he died. He flopped over on his stomach, and bit his lip violently as the movement threatened his stomach to heave, and his limbs screeched out in complaint at the exertion.

Naruto didn't even think of stopping though. Crawling on his belly, caterpillar-style he moved on the floor away from the tree he had propped up against. Nothing though! Still farther he crawled, each movement becoming slightly weaker than before. In reality, Naruto moved ten meters a most, but to him, each shuffle was a thousand kilometers. His eyes searched in vain for the violet spiky flower that revealed the plant, but he found nothing.

He moaned in frustration, and laid his head on the ground. Already he could feel the stiffness intensifying. The wound at this hip was red and inflamed, and hurt to the touch of air.

_So is the end of Naruto, Toad Sannin. Not even a month active and already dead. Shit, I'm going to miss you, Sakura. And I'm going to rip_ _Sasuke _apart_ when he dies._

He resigned himself to death. But… wait a moment… What was that scent? Naruto lifted his head stiffly, and took a number of short whiffs, his heightened sense of smell managing to catch the scent despite its weakness. Sweet… with a hint of milk sap?

_Milk thistle! _Naruto realized.

His energy bounded up as he quickly identified the source of the smell. In front of him, almost within arms reach, by the tree trunk! The shuffled to it agonizingly slowly, despite the stiffness. Luckily he only needed to move centimeters, and within moments the seed was in his mouth. He chewed it violently, careful not to swallow it. The blond spat out the substance onto his hand, milky and thick on his palm, and almost bit off his tongue as he slapped it onto the wound.

The discomfort was only momentary as almost instantly the acid feeling left his veins, and was replaced by a cooling feeling. The wound began to weep the poison, as the milk thistle expulsed it from his body, and Naruto sighed in relief.

So he would live after all.

* * *

The stiffness took a little longer to leave, but it too left him eventually.

"Damn, that was way too close. Got to be more careful next time" managed to say Naruto to himself, despite a still thick tongue. He dusted himself off from the ground, and mentally slapped himself to almost dying to such a cheap trick.

There was nothing more to do though, so he wrapped up the wound in a bandage to stop the bleeding, collected the few kunais on the ground and leapt into a tree. The few minutes of travel to Konoha were slightly uncomfortable – his leg gave him trouble – but it gave him time to think.

First of all, there was the fact that Sasuke wasn't dead. He allowed that thought to sink it for a bit. _Sasuke was back from death. _Which was something that made no sense at all. Naruto thought about it rationally. There were, maybe, three possible ninjas that were powerful enough, or experienced enough to know a jutsu that could bring one back from the dead. However, both Orochimaru and Pein were dead, leaving only Madara. He would definitely not help an ally of Konoha, but he could possibly be blamed for Sasuke's change of alliance. Possibly. Naruto was confused the most over this.

Therefore, Sasuke's life was probably restored by a third – unknown to Naruto – party, who was neither Sound nor Akatsuki. Which didn't make sense either, because besides those two, there didn't seem to be a group that had enough influence or power to gain ninja's of high-skill caliber. Different theories jumbled over in Naruto's head, but the initial shock of confronting his friend had already worn off. To try and deny himself the fact that Sasuke was back was folly.

Second though, when the hell had Sasuke defected from Konoha? He had been a Jounin at his death for Kami's sake. There were, of course, two obvious possibilities, Naruto thought. One was that Sasuke had been an enemy spy at the time of his supposed death. Perhaps he worked for Akatsuki. That, however, seemed highly unlikely, seeing that he played an important role in the attrition of the group. He would never pledge his allegiance to the Sound either.

So that meant that his change had probably been after his return from death, probably by a powerful energy of Konoha. That led back to Akatsuki or the Sound though. Naruto was beginning to think that either of those two groups was probably responsible.

His train of thought was abruptly cut off at the sight of the city gates. He snapped back into the present moment. First thing first, he needed to report to his Hokage. His wound was beginning to ache again, and while he hadn't promised to sleep over at Sakura's, she was probably worried about his absence anyway – but his duties came first.

* * *

He was stopped at the gate for a moment, but after seeing the dirtied state of his clothes, and the nasty bloody bandage at his hip, the watch let him in quickly. Naruto grunted his thanks, and took off at a ninja-pace, regulations be damned.

Within moments the base of the Hokage tower loomed in front of him, and Naruto wondered whether or not he was strong enough to bound up the side.

He did it anyway.

He charged up the side of the wall, silent as a breeze of wind. His wound protested painfully, but he ignored it as he leapt the final meter to the Hokage's office. Naruto burst through the window, and landed silently on the floor, his Sannin cloak billowing behind him.

_What the hell? Baa-chan isn't here. The room is dark… _he observed.

Instantly, a hand clapped over his mouth, his head was jerked back and he felt the tip of a kunai touch the base of his skull.

"Who the hell are you?" asked a voice, the tone hostile and sharp as a blade, and Naruto was not surprised to find that it belonged to his Baa-chan.

"Goddamnit you old hag!" Naruto said, his voice muffled by the hand covering his mouth. "It's me! Naruto!"

"Watch you language, boy. Keep in mind who you're talking to," Tsunade admonished, not even apologizing as she released the blonde's head. The knife she held disappeared into her sizable bosom. Naruto could see the apology in her eyes though, so he waved off the offense.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. What the hell is with the dark office and the cloak and dagger crap? You expecting someone else? I have important intel that I need to report on, and I'd _rather _you wait until I'm done to stab me with your little pretend kunai!"

The sarcasm wasn't hurtful though, and Tsunade brushed it off.

"Report. I'll share what I need to say when you're done" she responded, her tone businesslike.

Naruto then told her about what had occurred, and he had the rare pleasure of seeing Tsunade's face blanch at the story. The severity of that expression was lost on Naruto, as he misunderstood the face as shock at the return of Sasuke.

"Wouldn't you say that "weird" doesn't really do the thing justice?" Naruto asked rhetorically, referring to the Uchiha's return.

Tsunade had moved to her desk, and now she sat there in thoughtful silence, her laced fingers supporting her thinking head.

"Hey, listen, if you have something to say… I am kind of bleeding here," Naruto reminded her, pointing at the bandage, which had started to stain crimson once more.

"Naruto, remember that S-class mission I had talked about earlier?" she said, the first words since Naruto had told his story.

"Yeah, what about it? Is that really relevant to this?"

Tsunade's inflection was grave, as was her nod.

"It has _everything _to do with this," she paused for a moment and retrieved a box from under her desk before resuming. "Naruto. What you will see in this box will likely stay engraved in your mind until the day you die. I don't ask lightly of this. You can back out right now from this mission, and I won't resent or judge you a single bit because of it"

"Oh shut up, Baa-chan. Really, don't be so melodramatic. Besides, I've never refused an S-class" he grinned cheekily and moved his hand to lift up the lid. "Besides, it's probably some retarded dead anima-"

He stopped in mid-sentence, and his eyes widened in shock. Bile threatened to rise up in his throat, and his fingers began to shake uncontrollably.

"Baa… Hokage-sama… _What is this?!" _

Inside the box, Anko's neatly severed head lay looking up at Naruto.

The eyes had been gauged out, and a crude parody of the sharingan painted on rocks had been inserted into the sockets.

Naruto lost his self-control and ran over to the window. He stuck his head out of the window, and hurled the contents of his stomach the two hundred feet to the ground. Tsunade stared at the door in front of her desk impassively. She didn't say a word, and waited nearly a full five minutes before Naruto had regained his composure.

"My apologies, Naruto. I should have warned you more appropriately," she spoke, "but it was better that you see it rather than hear about it."

Naruto remained silent, but he maintained his gaze on Tsunade's face.

"Over the past month, I have been receiving intelligence reports that a dark silhouette with Sharingan-like eyes had been attacking isolated areas of the Land of Fire. Up until a few weeks ago I had dismissed this as rumors, which is why you hadn't heard about it at all," she said, quickly answering Naruto's question before he worded it himself. "That is, until yesterday. This was found in the gate watch's main office building yesterday. Nobody recognized it, or claimed it as its own, so it was opened to see if it had any contents in it. Of course, the head was recognized, and it was instantly brought to me. Nobody else besides you and the ninja who handled it has seen the contents. Which means that nobody else except yourself, Kakashi, Sakura or Sai may know about it."

"Of course, the Sharingan stones are a clear message. Sasuke is back, and he means business. We have no idea why he has done this, or what are his intentions. Your mission will be to answer those two questions. Your resources are the full use of your war-time capacities, fully approved by myself and most of the council. Funding will be unlimited, and you have been granted any resources you deem necessary to this operation. Understood?"

Naruto had stayed quiet throughout all of this, but now his eyes steeled themselves. His stance became more aggressive, his nostrils flared, and his lips pulled back, displaying his teeth. Everything had happened too quickly for any normal ninja to understand, judge correctly, but Naruto was different. He was the Toad Sannin, the most powerful ninja in the village, second only to his Hokage. He didn't have to waste time dealing with confusion or doubts. It came with the job.

"Understood."

"Good. Leave now, get rest. You will be back in this office at exactly 0900 hours," Tsunade turned swiftly around in her chair, and Naruto found himself staring at the back of her head. Dismissed.

He left the room.

* * *

**A/N: Not going to lie, Naruto can be a bit of a badass when wants to be. Longest chapter so far, I think, and probably the one I like the most so far. So the story finally has a plot! Anyway, I'm thinking of adding some Naru/Saku fluff next, but eh, we'll see. Hope you enjoyed it!**


	9. Preparations

**A/N: Here we go, chapter nine. Alright, yes, I know, the story is slightly hard to follow in the opening chapters, but, c'mon, give me a break. I was thirteen or something when I first started writing this. I'll try and re-write the crappy parts and re-upload them at some point.**

* * *

It was still dark when Naruto quietly unlocked the door to Sakura's apartment and let himself in.

_Seriously, half the time I'm awake, it's night, _he reflected

The home was quiet, but it was a different kind of quiet than the forest. Whilst the forest's quiet was full of tension and danger, this quiet was peaceful and Naruto allowed himself to relax.

_First thing's first._

Naruto's clothes were dirty and bloody from the waist-down from his wound. Moving to the guest room's bathroom as to not disturb his sleeping fiancée, he turned on the hot water and began to methodically clean the laceration.

Looking at it, he decided that it was most definitely going to require hospital work, but that could wait until the morning. It was ugly. The kunai that Sasuke had used had a barbed tip, so when Naruto pulled it out, flesh had clung to the kunai like a fish on a hook. Now, it looked like as if something had erupted from beneath Naruto's leg, and strips of it poked out backwards, flopping over and forming an umbrella over the rest of the skin.

Ugly-indeed.

It hurt slightly, but not enough to keep him from operational movement, as long as he channeled a steady flow of chakra to the leg to deaden his pain receptors, and stop the flow of blood. Now though, he was exhausted, so he reduced the flow of chakra slightly, and hissed as pain shot through the wound like lightning. Calmly, he placed the afflicted area under the hot water, and allowed it to run through the leg for a bit. Grabbing a bottle of alcohol, he steeled himself for the stinging pain, and poured it over the wound.

Instantly, tears flooded his eyes, and he had to bite his lip to keep from shouting out loud, but the pain did not last long. The wound now theoretically disinfected – Naruto never really trusted his own medical expertise – he bandaged it once more, and sat down on the toilet.

He just sat there, and allowed himself to zone out. He sighed sadly.

_Ah, Sasuke. What happened to you, buddy? It was barely a year ago that you died, and I thought that was the end of it. But now, you're back, and you nearly kill me _he thought mournfully. Sasuke was different, that was painfully obvious. But why? What had caused the change? What made Sasuke – the Sasuke that Naruto had come to love as a brother – revert to the old, hard Sasuke? He thought that that period of idiocy was long past his friend, but that was apparently not true anymore.

Naruto clenched his fists. There was also Anko to think about. Anko had taken Sasuke in after he had returned from his stint with Akatsuki, and the two snake users had formed a strong master/student bond. To think that Sasuke would betray such strong a bond made him want to rip out every single tooth in Sasuke's mouth.

But it was the coldness in his eyes that made Naruto want to rip his hair out. It was the casualness with which he intended to hand out death. Didn't their friendship mean anything to him now? Weren't all those years of comradery, their fight at the Valley at the end, his redemption at the hands of Naruto supposed to mean something?

All those years spent searching for Sasuke, fighting him and turning him back to Konoha – was it all for nothing?

_DAMNIT!_

Naruto slammed his fist down on the tile in the bathroom violently, and the resounding smack echoed in the bathroom. Ugh. Sometimes, Naruto reflected, it would be better that he never had gotten himself into the ninja world.

He stood up from the toilet and entered the main bedroom.

There, his cherry blossom lay asleep. A tuft of pink hair had fallen over her petit face, and it puffed up and down with her every breath. Naruto smiled. Here was the reason that he had joined the ninja world, he suddenly remembered.

Sure, it had been a childish infatuation back then – a crush really – but it had slowly evolved to something more, starting that fateful night underneath the moon, and finally maturing when he had proposed. And, yes, he supposed, Sakura was more than capable of kicking ass by herself, but she was still his woman, and he would protect her with his life.

He lifted the covers and laid himself down next to her. The scent of strawberries was strong, he had always joked privately to himself that she actually produced the scent herself, and he encircled her with his arms. After what had happened that night, it felt good to feel her securely within his arms. It was almost as if she was one of his links to sanity, the only thing grounding him to a calm mind, and preventing him from going nine-tails.

Sakura had noticed Naruto enter the room, but she remained relaxed as she felt his body slide in to bed next to her. She had started to worry that he wasn't going to come tonight, as he usually did, but now her fears were dispelled.

They fell naturally into a spooning position, and Sakura gripped his forearms to her chest, and gently nuzzled the strong, rough fingers. If there was one thing she loved about his body, it was his fingers. So many things could be said about a person based on their fingers, and Naruto's said that he was fiercely loyal, and inspiringly strong.

They both laid there, their breathing rhythm becoming one, and Naruto soon fell asleep.

* * *

When Naruto woke up the next morning, he found an empty spot next to him, where Sakura had been last night. He touched it momentarily.

_Cold. She's been out for a while._

He sprawled out on the bed and debated whether or not to sleep in another hour, before he resigned himself to getting up. A disheveled Naruto greeted him as he glanced into the mirror. He noted with some approval at the fact that there were no bags under his eyes.

_Good. Exhaustion reduced efficiency._

Naruto showered and dressed quickly and ate a frugal meal that Sakura had prepared earlier. He really wasn't surprised that she was already gone – the hospital required long hours from its more experienced staff members, and she was a senior one at that.

Twentyminutes after waking up, Naruto was locking Sakura's front door behind him, and as he stepped out into the street a bright morning sun greeted him. He stretched and yawned. His wound barely pained him at all, and even without looking at it, he could guess that it was probably almost completely healed. Being a jinchuriki had its benefits.

Naruto stood there for a moment to collect chakra in his legs before instantly exploding in a burst of speed down the street. Wind tugged viciously at his hair and face, but he didn't care. More than anything, this was a test drive of his own body before he set out to start his day. He kept his speed steady for a few minutes, moving straight down the street at a sprint. He avoided villagers with ease, his eyes noticing them from hundreds of yards away, and his brain automatically controlling his body to slip by them. Accelerating even faster, he leapt up to a rooftop in a frenzy of corkscrews, startling pedestrians who were suddenly bowled over by the gale he left behind him.

Arms and legs pumping, he ran at breakneck pace – even for a ninja. His wound barely hindered him at all, and he guessed that if it weren't for the vertical obstacles in his way, he'd probably be able to run even faster. His Sannin overcoat billowed out behind him as he sped through the city, spreading out as far as the seams would allow when he dived off buildings.

He ran five laps around the village at this speed, and by the time he was done and standing in front of the Hokage tower, his breathing was rhythmic and in control. Physically, Naruto had supreme dominance over his body. He grinned at the fact that he hadn't even broken out in sweat. Sasuke was sorely mistaken if he thought he was going to beat Naruto _that _easily.

This time, Naruto entered the Hokage's office the normal way. The first-floor receptionist nodded at Naruto has he entered the building, and allowed him to pass unhindered to the elevator that led up to the Hokage's floor.

The short elevator ride up to the top floor gave him a short period of time in which to collect his thoughts.

_Manhunts. Haven't done those in a while. _

Mentally, Naruto began to tick off the different resources he'd need in order to find Sasuke quickly and efficiently. Supposing, of course, that this _was _Sasuke, and not some cheap trick to rattle Naruto.

But the fight in the forest had been too real for Naruto to really consider Sasuke to be a fake. Everything – the inflection, the gestures, the flippant tone of voice – was all reminiscent of the Uchiha. Or at least the old Team Seven Sasuke, before Sasuke defected to Orochimaru. After returning him to Konoha, Naruto distinctly remembered Sasuke having opening up, and acting friendlier towards everyone. If this _was _the real Sasuke, he must have recreated his addiction to hatred during his supposed 'death'.

Naruto made a mental note make the investigation of Sasuke's death his first priority. Though he really couldn't imagine how much he would find out that he didn't already know. In fact, how could anyone even tell him Sasuke didn't die? He was there when Sasuke died! Though, Naruto had to admit to himself, he had obviously been fooled. Sasuke obviously didn't die, if he was still alive today, and in fighting condition.

The elevator chimed quietly, and the doors slid open to reveal the Hokage's office's outer atrium. A fountain encircled in stones gave the room the peaceful air of a mountain spring. Stepping through the room quickly, Naruto strode in to the office proper, and noted that the change in environment from the atrium was noticeable. Tsunade, the back of her chair to the door, was unconsciously releasing waves of killing intent. She was angry at the situation. Naruto gave a quick greeting to the Hokage.

"Morning, Tsunade."

"Well, you took your damn time," she said, not turning around

Naruto scoffed.

"Yeah, how about next time _you _take a poisoned kunai, and try to get up early in the morning."

Tsunade grunted and muttered something about good-for-nothing jinchuurikies. She swiveled her chair around, and faced Naruto.

"Whatever. Let's get straight to business. Sasuke is out there, and whether we like it or not, he needs to be captured again, or killed. Before we start planning anything – do you have any qualms with that?"

Naruto stayed silent, and Tsunade raised a questioning eyebrow. Naruto shrugged.

"What? The bastard put a kunai into me. And I'm already done with saving his sorry ass. If he needs to be killed, I won't hesitate."

Tsunade nodded, her expression somewhat surprised at the normally loyal Naruto's newfound coldness.

"Excellent. Had you any problems with that, I would have had to pull you from the mission. But going back to business – Your mission will be to, preferably, capture Sasuke alive, or, if necessary, terminate him."

Naruto nodded.

"What resources will I have at my disposal?"

"Whatever you require. Sasuke's reappearance has been deemed to be the village's number one priority, and the elder council has agreed to provide you with your previously agreed executive power."

Naruto was startled at the council's uncharacteristic decisiveness and swiftness.

"What? Why is Sasuke a priority? I admit, it's definitely surprising that he's back; it's definitely worrying that he was supposed to be dead, but I can't see why the village is making this a number one priority. In fact, he's only killed a single ninja up until now."

"I agree. But the council was adamant in this. I suspect they're afraid that if they don't do something soon, we'll have a situation as bad as when Sasuke originally defected. Politically speaking, that's something that the council cannot afford to have on their hands again" Tsunade responded. She paused for a moment before asking,

"Do you have anything planned to start off from?"

"Yeah, actually, I do." Naruto said.

"While I was riding the elevator up here, I was thinking about the mission where Sasuke was supposed to have 'died'. Though I did clearly see him receive a fatal blow during the mission, now that I think about it, I don't actually remember recovering his body. Nor do I recall the exact details of the mission, and I'd like to go over it. I might find a clue as to how Sasuke survived through the mission's records"

Tsunade nodded thoughtfully.

"I'll make sure you get those documents. Anything else?"

"Not for now, no," Naruto said, before something else occurred to him, "Oh, I will need a command center though. And a few aids. I suspect that this manhunt is going to be pretty damn long, and I don't want to be caught up to my ass in information without help in filtering it all."

"Done. I'll contact you with the details for your command center once a location has been decided upon. Have any ideas for aides though?"

Naruto grunted.

"Sakura, definitely. She's good at this kind of thing. Plus, Sasuke was her teammate as well; she's going to want a piece of this. Probably Shikamaru too, if you can spare him. I'll also need Ino's mind-reading and interrogation skills, if I can't get information out of people through the normal methods."

"Good choices. I'll make sure that those three get attached to your command."

Naruto nodded.

"Alright, I better go. I want to get some training in today. Fighting Sasuke made me painfully aware that I'm a bit out of practice," Naruto said.

With that, he leapt up from his chair, bounded through the office, then jumped out the office window.

Tsunade rolled her eyes.

"Sannins…"

* * *

Twenty minutes after his meeting with Tsunade, Naruto found himself at his favorite training ground. Training ground three was the place where Team Seven had had their first training exercise, and Naruto found that he was still fond of the place. For a few moments Naruto just stood there, closed his eyes, and drew the scents of the forest deep into his lungs. The air was sweet and woodsy, the smell of soil light and calming. All was calm.

Naruto sat down and crossed his legs in one fluid motion, and allowed the sound of the forest to invade his senses. The sound of the wind gently prodding tree branches came to his ears. He spread out his senses as far as they could go, feeling and probing the different animal's separate chakra signatures. He felt birds flittering amongst the great oaks, predators stalking their prey, the small beady presences of insects under the dirt, and tried to hold the feeling of each in his mind.

Completely at peace with his surroundings, he allowed his arms to cross gently into a meditative position, and began chakra flow exercises. He visualized the chakra in his body as flowing water, and practices diverting the flow of chakra to different parts of his body.

_Like a river, you can divert the flow, but can never stop it completely._

This he had been told by Jiraiya, and it was true. Naruto could ease the chakra in his body to his hands, feet or eyes, but try as he might, he could never keep the same chakra in any part of his body. All he could to was regulate the flow into, say, his arms, as well as regulate the flow out of it.

Now, he set up internal stones along the bank of his chakra river, and redirected the energy deep into his belly. There, the chakra gently swirled into a whirlpool, and Naruto felt a warm sensation rise up from his midriff into his chest and then spread out through the rest of his body.

He held the sensation for a few moments, the chakra fully spreading out through his system. His senses became even more acute than they were before. Now, to Naruto's ear, it was almost as if he could actually _hear _silence. Even with his eyelids fully covering his eyes, Naruto could begin to detect the silhouettes of the tress surrounding him. His skin became extra-sensory to the environment, and he could feel the soil beneath him, even though clothes covered every part of his body. His nosed twitched as scents of every kind invaded his body, but his brain quickly filtered the smells, so he could tell each one apart.

_Good. Very good. _He told himself. Naruto stayed sitting in the middle of the clearing for a few minutes, before releasing the technique, standing up and stretching.

The extra-sensory technique that he had just performed was something of his own design, based on the teachings of Jiraiya, on the subject of chakra. Naruto's body acted as a reservoir of chakra, and by allowing the chakra to fully pool out throughout his organism, it eventually overflowed and spread out through his surroundings. Through this, he was able to completely sense his environment.

It was a technique he still hadn't mastered, and it required him to be completely still and quiet for a few moments, as he set about the task of making his chakra spill out of his body. This was the biggest problem with the technique so far, something that Naruto was still trying to overcome. So far, he was able to shorten the preparation time of the technique to about five minutes, but he required total concentration and complete stillness. Something that would make the technique useless in the middle of the fight.

Naruto sighed in frustration, passed a single hand through his unruly hand, before flopping onto his back. Pausing for a few seconds, he went into a series of abdominal crunches. He kept this up for about ten minutes, reaching one thousand-five hundred sit-ups before stopping. Somebody had entered the training grounds.

"Hey!" Naruto called out to the forest.

"Naruto! Hello there! I see you are training." A familiar voiced responded. Lee stepped into the clearing.

"I was passing by when I suddenly felt the intense flames of youth that only somebody like yourself would send out, and I thought that I might spar with you."

Naruto grinned.

"Yeah, sure. I was actually just about to go look for you after I finished physical training, but I'll just skip it and cut to kicking your ass."

Lee chuckled and said, "I think you mean 'getting my ass kicked'."

They both into their respective combat stances, and traded a few more good-natured verbal jabs before leaping across the training ground and trading blows.

Lee came in to the fight with a fist cocked back, and as soon as he came within range, he let it fly with deadly accuracy. Naruto sidestepped casually, seeming to slide across the ground effortlessly, before offering an uppercut of his own. Lee twisted his body to avoid the blow, stepping past Naruto, who's back was now exposed.

Lee drove an expertly-placed elbow into Naruto's back, but Naruto was already moving forward and rolling to avoid the rock-hard joint. As he rolled, he stuck out his left leg to try and sweep his opponent off his feet. Lee neatly stepped over the leg, and quickly turned around to face Naruto once more. Neither man was breathing hard.

"Nice try with the elbow there, Lee" Naruto said, still grinning.

Pausing momentarily, Naruto collected chakra in his legs once more, like earlier that morning, and instantly exploded in a fury of speed. Tree branches behind him were pulled in his direction as he left behind a vacuum of air. Lee didn't even see Naruto's movement. Suddenly, a hand came out of nowhere from behind him, and a leg popped out of the nether, both working in coordination to trip Lee over. Using all of his strength, Naruto set up a leg in front of his opponent, and pushed him over with is hand.

Now on the ground, Lee attempted to but up a decent defense, but it was hopeless. Ground fighting and grappling was Naruto's strength, whereas exchanging strikes was more along Lee's specialties. Naruto was instantly upon Lee, and fist after fist found its way to his face. His arms and legs fully pinned, and his body pummeled, Lee had no choice but to slacken his body, pretending to have been knocked out.

"Woops," Naruto murmured, surprised at how quickly Lee had gone out.

He stopped his blows, and got off Lee. Big mistake.

With a roar that fully set Naruto's hair standing, Lee bunched up his legs onto his chest before hitting Naruto with both feet full on the chest. His head snapped back, then forward as his body left the space it was occupying moments before. Ribs cracked, air left his lungs, and Naruto went flying back into the forest. He crashed into a tree and he groaned in pain.

Mouth bleeding from a gash on his lip, blood partially blinding him as it flowed into his eyes, Naruto got up from the splinters of the tree that he had bowled over as he flew. He picked out the wooden shards that had embedded themselves into his skin, and flicked them out of sight into the forest. He cackled devilishly, wincing slightly as the gesture spread his gash apart. With a training partner like Lee, Sasuke was as good as dead.

Clutching his bruised ribs, and shrugging the pain away, he leapt back to the training grounds and continued the fight.

* * *

**A/N: So a bit of filler for the next chapter, when the manhunt for Sasuke begins. I'm not particularly good at fight scenes though, so sorry if it wasn't that great. Anyway, read, enjoy, review and all that jazz.**


	10. Into the Deep

**A/N: Yo. It's been a while. Back with another chapter. Yes, this story is going somewhere :P. Be warned there probably won't be another update for a while. I'm kinda sporadic what with school.**

* * *

Naruto stood solemnly in clearing where five years back, Sasuke had died.

Three clicks to the east, the Sound Village lay, freed from the tyranny of Pein, but bloodthirsty nonetheless. Naruto and his team had had to be inserted clandestinely, but now their anonymous visage faded as they stood on the field where they had lost their comrade.

Beside him, a hooded figure lost its turban, revealing pink hair and pale skin. Sakura stared at the field with distant eyes. Naruto knew that she too was reliving the past. Behind them, elements of the original Rookie Nine stood, quietly permitting their comrades a few moments to reflect.

Shikamaru was the first to break the silence. He placed a hand on Naruto's shoulder.

"We all heard about the mission, but nobody knows what really happened. Care to…?" he let the question trail off.

"Yeah… It wasn't a big deal, actually. No melodramatic battle or anything like that. We were on our way to the Sound, attempting to assassinate Pein – this was before Jiraiya died – and we got ambushed. Sasuke stuck his head out from behind cover with his Sharingan on and some lucky Sound bastard saw him and managed to stick a kunai through his brains," Naruto sad, head shaking sadly.

There was nothing more to be said about it, so Shikamaru grunted softly before turning to give orders to the rest of the team to spread out and examine the battlefield. Five years would have erased any evidence of movement, but perhaps a secret passage or unobvious exit would help explain an unknown party retrieving Sasuke's body.

Satisfied with the orders Shikamaru had already given, Naruto left the group behind and took to the northernmost section of the clearing, where five years back he and his team and been preparing to take out Pein. Sakura followed him.

"What do you think?" she murmured.

"There's no way he could possibly be alive. We both saw the kunai go in. It was clean and it was instantly fatal," Naruto said, but it was without conviction.

They each took a step towards their respective bark, where they had each stood before. The trees were arranged diagonally, with Naruto's tree the farthest back followed by Sakura's tree a meter south-west, followed by Sasuke's tree a greater distance in the same direction. Naruto tried to recall the event.

They had spotted Pein on the eastern end of the field, apparently meditating with his back turned to them. Behind him, farther east, laid his traveling contingent. Naruto had whispered urgently to the other two to take up positions on the tree line. Then, as he ordered Sasuke to eyeball the edges of the clearing to find good cover, a random patrol of Sound ninja spotted them from the south, and without any fuss, flung half a dozen kunais. Five of them missed; the sixth managed to find its way into Sasuke'd head.

Just like that, the last of the Uchiha clan was dead.

Naruto once again shook his head sadly. Even legendary ninja could die from something as simple as a kunai. Sasuke had only been human.

Sakura spoke up.

"Hey… I know we killed the patrol, and the others never found the bodies… but is it possible that Pein himself retrieved the corpse?"

Naruto considered this before answering.

"It's possible, but I don't think it's likely. Pein was at least five hundred yards down that way," he said, jamming a thumb to the east. Sakura stared off into the distance, reimagining Pein's squatting figure.

"We should have come back for him…"

"Yeah. We should have."

Naruto left it at that. To this day he had always questioned his decision to leave behind Sasuke's corpse. It went against his every instinct, but at the time the priority had been survival. The ambush squad might have alerted the others, and with one comrade down, it was too dangerous to continue the assault. Naruto had pulled the plug and retreated, Sakura in tow. There hadn't even been enough time to grieve.

He sighed and shook off the past. Better to deal with the consequences of his actions than to dwell on what could have been different.

* * *

"Shikamaru!"

The young Jounin shifted his head towards Naruto and grunted an acknowledgement. He released the shadow jutsu he was using to probe the ground for any abysses or holes that might be telltale of an underground passage.

"What?" came the lazy reply.

"Anything?"

"What the hell do you think?"

"I'm thinking you might have found something"

"Well… Yeah. Sort of. I'm not sure. C'mere" Shikamaru gestured towards the patch of grass he had been combing.

Naruto took a moment to quickly observe the others before joining Shikamaru. They had divided the field up into quadrants and were each observing their own particular area. Nobody seemed to have found anything.

"What do we have here?"

Shikamaru shrugged.

"Like I said, not sure. The shadows around here feel a little deeper and denser. Not spectacularly so, but enough to merit digging, I'd say."

"Got it."

_Rasengan!_

When the dust cleared the pair found a sinkhole that just barely accommodated a short little hole going underground.

"Good work, Shika," Naruto said, nodding with satisfaction.

Shikamaru shrugged and peered into the sinkhole.

"Any idea where that leads?"

Naruto shook his head. Eyeing the sinkhole, he noticed something.

"Look at that."

He gestured at the sinkhole's haggard edges, obviously not constructed with normal tools but hastily made with ninja tools and techniques.

"I'm guessing this wasn't here when Sakura and I left. Whoever recovered the body must stored it in there to hide it from Pein quickly."

Shikamaru nodded.

"Kind of a stretch to say that that confirms Pein didn't recover the body himself… but it makes sense. If Pein had retrieved it he wouldn't have left it around here – it would have been taken back to the village."

Naruto agreed with Shikamaru's conclusion. There was still the matter of exploring the sinkhole entrance. Naruto called Sakura over and quickly informed her of his and Shikamaru's guesswork.

"So I'm guessing you want to explore?" Sakura said with a raised eyebrow.

"It's worth taking a look at. It seems to much of a coincidence that this little foxhole was placed here, only a few yards away from where we lost Sasuke."

"Alright. We'll be out here – give a shout if you need help." Sakura said.

She smiled and squeezed Naruto's hand lightly.

Naruto smiled back, joined Shikamaru down in the sinkhole and then trudged into the earth's bowels.

* * *

It was dark, but Naruto's fox-eyes allowed him to see well enough. He didn't know how Shika was managing, but he was a shadow user – darkness was no hindrance to him. The tunnel was short, requiring Naruto to stoop his tall shoulders over and dip his head slightly.

"Ugh. Smell that?"

Shikamaru sniffed the air tepidly.

"Nah. What is it?"

Naruto's nose scrunched at the bad odor.

"It's nasty. Like when Chouji farts."

Shikamaru chuckled.

"Can't be that bad. I can't smell it. Maybe it's further down the tunnel?"

Naruto assented and they continued walking. Soon the earth turned slightly soft and squelchy, a notable change from the previous dusty and packed. Their sandals stuck in the mud slightly as they labored through the passage. The narrow tunnel twisted once and then plunged down, into the earth.

"What kind of technique d'you think made this?" Naruto asked.

Shikamaru shrugged.

"It's a super random passage. See the walls? They're round but filled with grooves all over the place" he said, gesturing towards strange tracks in the walls.

"My guess," he offered, "is some sort of rolling or spinning technique, sort of like Kiba's twin fang. But with some kind of earth-element chakra to it. He was spinning fast and the earth must have been parting instantly for him."

Naruto nodded silently.

_Spinning huh._

He was reminded of a certain attacker in the Konoha forest. Sure, maybe it was a stretch, but that would link Sasuke, the spinning little creature _and _this tunnel all together.

The tunnel soon widened into a large chasm. Naruto whistled.

The altar that lay before them had obviously not seen any use at all in the previous years, but the rotting corpse that was on top of it indicated that at some point somebody had been here.

"How are you not puking at that smell?"

Shika had evidently finally noticed the stench. Naruto shrugged.

"Would be kind of a handicap if I couldn't tone down the sensitivity, wouldn't it?"

Shikamaru moved forward to examine the body. He was not disturbed by the putrefying corpse. He was a ninja after all.

"Well. This has been here a while. He's a guy."

He took a step back to appraise the altar. It was a wide stone structure, wide enough to easily accommodate two bodies. The corpse was on the right side of the surface while the left side lay bare.

"What do you think Naruto? Sacrifice of some sort?"

Naruto grunted in assertion and checked the body for any sign of a protector.

"Clean, no headband or protector anywhere on the body. This guy was either a nukenin or his killer removed the headband. I'm guessing it was the first one. Not even Akatsuki removed protectors."

Shikamaru nodded.

"Only one question remains though. What was the sacrifice for? I can't think of any techniques off the top of my head that require a full body sacrifice _and _an altar to perform. You can manage most with offerings or just killing a guy," he pondered.

"I can't think of any either," Naruto responded. "But I'm thinking we should take this back to the village. Maybe the medics can get his identity somehow? Pass me a scroll would you?"

Shikamaru handed Naruto a sealing scroll, and with a few flips of his hands Naruto stored the body safely within the sealing paper.

"Aand of course it still reeks."

Naruto chuckled at his friend's complaints. He was about to give the order to start the trek back upwards when he suddenly remembered the obvious question that neither of the two had asked.

"What the _fuck_ does this have to do with Sasuke?"

"Oh, right," Shikamaru answered sheepishly. "The first answer that comes to mind is that this is some sort of technique to revive the dead. I'm guessing that's why a full body sacrifice was required. But… I don't know of any techniques like that."

Naruto nodded thoughtfully. His own train of thought was running in a similar direction.

"All right then. Let's wrap it up. You take the lea-"

An muffled explosion rocked the underground chasm and sent plumes of dust cascading from the ceiling.

"The _fuck?_"

"Naruto! The others!"

_Sakura!_

Naruto was already half way down the tunnel by the time Shikamaru blinked.

* * *

**A/N: And that's that. Stick around, read, review, whatevs. Go ahead and touch that dial, the commercial break might be long.**


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